COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) _ The Ohio Parole Board today rejected a plea for mercy by a condemned man who fatally shot an adult bookstore security guard at the end of a multistate crime spree.

Frederick Treesh, sentenced to die for killing Henry Dupree in a 1994 robbery, had argued that he accepted responsibility for the killing but that it was an unintentional consequence of a struggle for a gun while he was high.

The parole board disagreed, ruling unanimously that the brutality of Treesh’s crime outweighed the effects of his addiction. The panel also said Treesh’s prison behavior is indicative of “a self-indulgent, petulant and immature individual.”

Treesh and his co-defendant “gratuitously brutalized, humiliated and killed innocent people, most of whom, like Dupree, posed no real or perceived threat to them,” the board said.

The decision came just under a month before Treesh’s scheduled March 6 execution. Gov. John Kasich has the final say.

Prosecutors say Treesh, 48, and the co-defendant robbed banks and businesses, committed sexual assaults, stole cars, committed carjackings and shot someone to death in a Michigan robbery during a spree that also took them to Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. He was sentenced to die in Ohio for killing Dupree in Eastlake.

Attorneys for Treesh argued for clemency last week, while prosecutors presented their case against sparing Treesh for a murder they say was intentional.

Treesh’s attorneys described him as a cocaine addict who was high during the robbery and is deeply sorry for what happened.

“Hindsight, regret and remorse cannot turn back the clock and cannot return Mr. Dupree’s life,” they said in a petition for clemency. “What Fred can do and has tried to do is to help prevent others from making the same mistakes he did” by teaching them to avoid drugs.

His lawyers argue evidence showed the shooting was unintentional and allege Treesh’s rights were violated during a prolonged interrogation as he was coming down from a drug high, which contributed to his death sentence. They also say Treesh suffers from health problems, including a seizure disorder, that raise concerns Ohio’s lethal injection process would cause him suffering amounting to cruel and unusual punishment.

Prosecutors contend Treesh intentionally murdered Dupree and tried to kill others, including police officers in pursuit.

“Treesh has never taken responsibility for his actions,” Lake County prosecutor Charles Coulson wrote. “Treesh still claims the cocaine made him do it.’”

Coulson also noted that courts previously determined Treesh’s constitutional rights weren’t violated.

Treesh declined to be interviewed by the parole board.

He was never prosecuted for the crimes in the other states, according to the Ohio Attorney General’s office.

Ohio’s most recent execution was in November, when the state put to death Brett Hartman for the 1997 stabbing and dismemberment of an Akron woman.