LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) – Ohio has put a condemned child killer to death in the state’s first execution in more than three years.

Ronald Phillips, 43, was executed Wednesday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. He was convicted for the 1993 rape and killing of Sheila Marie Evans, his girlfriend’s 3-year-old daughter.

There were no complications reported during the execution.

Donna Hudson, the victim’s aunt, was among the witnesses.

“Finally, after 24 years, she can rest in peace,” Hudson said.

Phillips made a brief statement from the death chamber: “To the Evans family, I’m sorry you had to live so long with my evil actions. All those years I prayed you’d forgive me and find it in your heart to forgive and have mercy on me. Sheila Marie did not deserve what I did to her. I know she is with the Lord and she suffers no more. I’m sorry to each and everyone of you that lived with this pain all those years. To my family, thank you for your support and faithfulness. Glory be to the lamb. Amen. I love you all and God bless you. Thank you.”

Hudson said it’s the first time they’ve heard any remorse from Phillips.

“The only apology we heard was today on his deathbed,” Hudson said. “That he asked forgiveness and that he’s sorry he did what he did. But to me, the damage is done and she’s gone. We’ll never get her back.”

Phillips’ attorney, Tim Sweeney said the man executed today was not the same person who had committed the crime as a teenager.

“He had grown to be a good man who was thoughtful, caring, compassionate, remorseful and reflective,” Sweeney said.

This was Ohio’s first execution since Dennis McGuire in January 2014. McGuire gasped and choked and struggled through a 26 minute execution process.

Since then the state has changed to a new three drug protocol.

Midazolam is still the first drug administered and is meant to put the inmate to sleep. A second drug is a paralytic. The third drug is used to stop the heart.

Alan Bohnert, a federal public defender who represented Phillips, criticized the state’s new formula saying it is just masking the inmates suffering. “But hiding the visible evidence does not change the reality that Ohio used a painful and unnecessary method of execution to kill Ron Phillips today.”

Phillips and other death row inmates had challenged the state’s new three-drug execution method, which includes a sedative used in some problematic executions in Ohio and elsewhere. The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday denied his request for a stay to continue legal appeals.

Phillips’ attorneys call the case tragic, but say he wasn’t one of the worst offenders.