Alabama is set to execute a man for the brutal slaying of an elderly northwest Alabama couple 20 years ago.

On Thursday, the Alabama Supreme Court authorized an execution by lethal injection for Jamie Ray Mills. Mills, 50, does not yet have an execution date. The timeframe for the execution will be set by Gov. Kay Ivey.

Mills was convicted of three counts of capital murder for the June 2004 killings of Floyd Hill and Vera Hill.

According to court records, then-30-year-old Mills and his wife at the time, JoAnn Mills, went to the Hill’s home in Guin to rob the couple on June 24, 2004.

Vera Hill, 72, was in poor health. Her husband of 55 years, Floyd Hill, was 87 years old and her caretaker.

Records state Floyd Hill was known to members of the community, including at his local gas station where Mills had worked, to carry large sums of cash.

“Though Mills denied knowing either of the Hills, there was evidence from which the jury could have concluded that Mills, out of work at the time, certainly did know the Hills and preconceived a plot to rid them of their cash… and, then brutally executed them with a machete, tire tool and ballpeen hammer,” said an order from the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. The court called the killing a “horrendous, gutless and cowardly act.”

One of the Hill’s adult grandchildren went to check on her grandparents later on June 24, 2004, but couldn’t reach them. She called police, who discovered the bodies in a shed on the property.

Vera Hill was still breathing when help arrived, and died several months later. She had been treated at several hospitals for brain injuries, a depressed skull fracture on the back of the head, fractures around her left eye, fractures to the nasal cavity, a fractured neck, and crushed hands․Her autopsy listed the cause of death as complications of blunt head trauma.

Jamie Mills and JoAnn Mills were arrested the following day. In their car, authorities found prescriptions belong to Vera Hill, along with a concrete block, bloody clothes and shoes. They also found Vera Hill’s purse and Floyd Hill’s wallet.

Also in the car were “one machete with blood and hair on it, one ballpeen hammer with blood on it wrapped in paper, and one lug nut tire tool,” according to court records. DNA testing on those items later confirmed the blood belonged to the Hills.

During Jamie Mills’ trial, JoAnn Mills testified that the two had been smoking meth in the hours before the slaying. She said she and Jamie Mills ran some errands and then went to the Hills house, where they went inside and used the phone. At some point, the Hills took the Mills to the shed to show the Mills their yard sale goods.

She testified she “heard a loud noise and saw a silhouette through the building’s plastic siding of what appeared to be Jamie Mills with something raised over his shoulder ‘with both hands, as if he was swinging something.’ JoAnn Mills then followed Vera Hill back into the shed to see what had happened. Upon entering the shed, JoAnn saw Floyd Hill lying on the ground and saw Jamie Mills hit Vera Hill in the back of her head with a hammer. When Mrs. Hill attempted to get up he struck her again with the hammer.”

She said her husband continued to beat the couple. They then exited the shed and went inside the Hill home, where they stole various items.

Jamie Mills was convicted and sentenced to death by a jury vote of 11-1.

JoAnn Mills was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.