Charles Thompson is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on January 28 2026 for a double murder
According to court documents Charles Thompson would go to the home of Glenda Dennise Hayslip, who was his former girlfriend, and would confront her new boyfriend Darren Keith Cain. The police would be called and Thompson would be removed from the premises
However a few hours later Charles Thompson would return to the home where he would murder Glenda Dennise Hayslip and Darren Keith Cain
Charles Thompson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Charles Thompson would make headline news in 2005 when he was going up for resentencing and would be able to escape. Thompson would remain on the loose for four days before he was recaptured
- Charles Thompson was executed by lethal injection on January 28 2026
Charles Thompson Execution News
A 55-year-old man convicted in the double killing of his ex-girlfriend and her new lover in 1998 is slated for execution in January after spending 26 years on death row, a judge ordered Thursday.
The execution of Charles Victor Thompson – scheduled for Jan. 28 – will be the first under District Attorney Sean Teare’s leadership. Nine people were executed during his predecessor’s tenure.
Thompson killed Dennise Hayslip, 39, and Darren Cain, 30, at her home in the 14700 block of Wunderlich in north Harris County after Hayslip ended her tumultuous relationship with Thompson to be with Cain. A jury convicted him in 1999 and sentenced him to death.
During the first trial, a psychologist declared Thompson a sociopath but also said he would benefit from prison life and sobriety.
A higher court overturned his sentence after prosecutors played an audio tape of a jail call at trial without prior notification to Thompson for his lawyers. Another jury affirmed his punishment during a second trial in 2005.
Thompson, while waiting to be transported back to death row following the second trial, escaped the Harris County jail after slipping into street clothes and fooling jailers into thinking he was an investigator. He was captured days later outside a liquor store in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Thompson is featured in the 2018 documentary series on Netflix, “I Am a Killer.”
Friends and family of Cain sat in the 262nd District Court gallery Thursday as prosecutor Andrew Smith detailed Thompson’s exhausted appeals and other legal proceedings aimed at overturning his sentence.
“This has been a long, long journey for the families of the victims,” Smith said. “It should be noted that the Cain family and friends of Darren are present in the courtroom. They have been looking forward to this day very much.”
The group declined to comment while leaving the courtroom.
Charles Thompson, meanwhile, watched the proceedings on Zoom from the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, where death row is housed. He sat at a table wearing a sleeveless white jumpsuit. He did not appear to react or say anything throughout the proceedings.
His attorney, Eric Allen, an Ohio criminal defense lawyer representing Thompson pro bono, said he only became aware that an execution date would be sought when members of the district attorney’s office searched Thompson’s cell – which often occurs to find materials to challenge intellectual disability claims or other defenses in capital punishment proceedings.
He asked the judge to delay signing the execution order in order to put together a bid at clemency.
Granting such a request was not in her power, Gray said before signing the execution order and reading it to Thompson. Her signature sets into motion Thompson’s execution in Huntsville next year and the likelihood of litigation aimed at thwarting his death.
Smith said the end of January was selected to avoid scheduling conflicts during the holidays.
Two other death row inmates are scheduled for execution before then, including Blaine Milam in two weeks and Robert Roberson next month for unrelated East Texas killings.
Charles Thompson, convicted in 1998 killings, scheduled for execution in January, judge orders
Charles Thompson Execution
A Texas man who once escaped custody and spent three days on the run after being sentenced to death for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend was put to death Wednesday, becoming the first person executed in the United States this year.
Charles Thompson, 55, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. CST following a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was condemned for the April 1998 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend, Glenda Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, at the woman’s suburban Houston apartment.
In his final words, Charles Thompson asked the families of his victims find it in their hearts to forgive him, adding “that you can begin to heal and move past this.”
“There are no winners in this situation,” he said after a spiritual adviser prayed over him for about 3 minutes and shortly before a lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered. He said his execution “creates more victims and traumatizes more people 28 years later.”
“I’m sorry for what I did. I’m sorry for what happened, and I want to tell all of y’all, I love you and that keep Jesus in your life, keep Jesus first,” he added.
As the injection began taking effect, Thompson gasped loudly, then took about a dozen breaths that evolved into three snores. Then all movement ceased and he was pronounced dead 22 minutes later.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said the execution brought long-awaited closure to the victims’ families.
“This is an incredibly solemn moment when the state takes a life,” Teare said. “But the relief that this is over for them was palpable.”
Prosecutors had said Thompson and Hayslip had been romantically involved for a year but split after Thompson “became increasingly possessive, jealous and abusive.”
According to court records, Hayslip and Cain were dating when Thompson came to Hayslip’s apartment and began arguing with Cain around 3 a.m. the night of the killings. Police were called and told Thompson to leave the apartment complex. He returned three hours later and shot both Hayslip and Cain.
Cain died at the scene, and Hayslip died in a hospital a week later.
“The Hayslip and Cain families have waited over twenty-five years for justice to occur,” prosecutors with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said in court filings.
About an hour before the scheduled 6 p.m. execution, the U.S. Supreme Court – without explanation – issued a brief order rejecting Thompson’s final appeal. On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had denied Thompson’s request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty.
Charles Thompson’s attorneys had argued in filings with the Supreme Court that he was not allowed to refute or confront the prosecution’s evidence that concluded Hayslip died from a gunshot wound to the face. Thompson’s attorneys argued that Hayslip actually died from flawed medical care she received after the shooting that resulted in severe brain damage sustained from oxygen deprivation following a failed intubation.
Prosecutors had said a jury had already rejected the claim by Thompson and decided under state law he was responsible for Hayslip’s death because it “would not have occurred but for his conduct.”
Hayslip’s family had filed a lawsuit against one of her doctors, alleging that medical negligence during her treatment left her brain-dead. A jury in 2002 found in favor of the doctor.
Charles Thompson had his original death sentence overturned and a new punishment trial was held in November 2005. A jury again ordered him to die by lethal injection.
Shortly after being resentenced, Charles Thompson escaped from the Harris County Jail in Houston by walking out the front door virtually unchallenged by deputies. He later told The Associated Press that after meeting with his attorney in a small interview cell, he slipped out of his handcuffs and orange jail jumpsuit and left the room, which was unlocked. Thompson waived an ID badge fashioned out of his prison ID card to get past several deputies.
“I got to smell the trees, feel the wind in my hair, grass under my feet, see the stars at night. It took me straight back to childhood being outside on a summer night,” Thompson said of his time on the run, speaking with AP in a 2005 interview. He was arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, while trying to arrange for wire transfers of money from overseas so he could make it to Canada.
Texas has historically held more executions than any other state though Florida had the most in 2025 with 19. The next execution in the U.S. is scheduled to be the Feb. 10 lethal injection of Ronald Palmer Health, who was convicted of killing a traveling salesman during a 1989 robbery in the Gainesville area of that state.
