texas death row | My Crime Library

Julius Murphy Texas Death Row

Julius Murphy was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murder of a man during a robbery. According to court documents Julius Murphy would fatally shoot the victim during a robbery. Julius Murphy would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Julius Murphy 2022 Information

SID Number: 05597363

TDCJ Number: 00999279

Name: MURPHY,JULIUS JEROME

Race: B

Gender: M

Age: 43

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW

Current Facility: POLUNSKY

Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: YES

Julius Murphy More News

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday stayed the execution of Julius Murphy, 36, which was set for Nov. 3, after his legal team presented claims of prosecutorial misconduct in his 1998 Bowie County capital murder trial. Murphy was convicted of killing a stranded motorist.

His attorneys, seeking access to the district attorney’s files in the case, claimed in court filings Friday in Bowie County that prosecutors threatened and coerced witnesses to testify against Murphy. They filed similar claims in late September in a petition to the Court of Criminal Appeals, citing a new statement from a witness who testified against Murphy at his trial.

“Mr. Murphy’s conviction and death sentence were procured through prosecutorial misconduct. Jurors considered evidence from two key witnesses while the prosecution unlawfully concealed the fact that those witnesses were pressured into testifying with threats of prosecution and promised leniency if they testified,” Cate Stetson, one of Murphy’s attorneys, said in a statement. “And one of the witnesses has now identified Mr. Murphy’s co-defendant as the true shooter. We look forward to continuing to raise the constitutional infirmities underlying Mr. Murphy’s conviction and death sentence before the courts.”

Murphy was convicted of fatally shooting Jason Erie, a man who was stranded on the side of a road in Texarkana. In fall 1997, after helping Erie with his stalled vehicle, the 18-year-old Murphy robbed, shot and killed Erie, prosecutors argued at his trial.

Others present that day testified against Murphy, including his then-girlfriend and a friend from whom he supposedly borrowed the gun used in the killing.

But Murphy’s trial lawyers were not told that two of those witnesses had been threatened with prosecution for murder or conspiracy if they did not testify to Murphy’s guilt, his lawyers now claim. One has since recanted his testimony, saying Murphy was not the killer.

https://www.texastribune.org/2015/10/12/texas-appeals-court-stays-julius-murphy-execution/

Nelson Mooney Texas Death Row

Nelson Mooney was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murder of a man during a robbery. According to court documents Nelson Mooney would shoot and kill the victim after he was kidnapped and brought to a remote location where he was robbed. Nelson Mooney would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Nelson Mooney 2022 Information

SID Number: 03551646

TDCJ Number: 00000868

Name: MOONEY,NELSON WAYNE

Race: W

Gender: M

Age: 66

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW

Current Facility: JESTER IV

Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: CALL

Nelson Mooney More News

A federal district court judge late Thursday granted a stay of execution to convicted murderer Nelson Wayne Mooney a few hours before the former construction worker was scheduled to die for the 1984 slaying of a Houston man.

Judge Robert Parker of Tyler granted the stay after Texas Resource Center attorneys late Thursday filed a motion for a stay and appointment of counsel, and filed a writ of habeas corpus, said spokeswoman Eden Harrington

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals earlier Thursday denied the appeal.

Mooney, 38, was sentenced to die by lethal injection for the Aug. 18, 1984, shooting and robbery of Raymond Garner, 63.

An employee of Bilbo Freight Lines of Houston, Garner’s body was found floating in the water at Dayton Lakes Estates. His body was covered by a blanket with a tire attached.

Mooney and co-defendant Ross Wayne Nix were arrested in Grand Junction, Colo., after attempting to rob a convenience store. They were driving Garner’s van, which had been repainted and had its license plates changed.

Nix told police he and Mooney abducted Garner, drove him to an isolated location and robbed him of $100 to $150 in cash that he was carrying. Nix said he was not present when Garner was killed.

Nix, 28, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/04/30/Death-row-inmate-granted-stay/6146704606400/

Pablo Melendez Texas Death Row

Pablo Melendez was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a murder committed during a robbery. According to court documents Pablo Melendez would approach the victim and demanded money before fatally shooting the victim. Pablo Melendez would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Pablo Melendez 2022 Information

SID Number: 05060609

TDCJ Number: 00999192

Name: MELENDEZ,PABLO JR

Race: H

Gender: M

Age: 46

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW CUMULATIVE OFFENSES

Current Facility: POLUNSKY

Projected Release Date: NOT AVAILABLE

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: YES

Pablo Melendez More News

On the evening of September 1, 1994, [Melendez], who was eighteen years old, visited and drank beer with a group of friends in the driveway of a Fort Worth residence. At approximately 11:30 p.m., [Melendez] stated, in a voice loud enough for most to hear, his intention to rob “some mother fucker,” and he walked away alone.

At that same time, in the nearby parking lot of a self-service wash, the two victims in this case had parked their pick-up truck parallel to a walk-up pay phone. They had been there a number of minutes when one of them, Tommie Joe Seagraves, noticed [Melendez] walking up behind the truck. As Seagraves looked on, he warned the truck’s driver, Michael Sanders, of [Melendez’s] approach. [Melendez] positioned himself about fifteen feet from the driver’s side door. Without any warning or even a word being spoken, [Melendez] turned and fired one shot into the cab of the vehicle, and it struck Seagraves in the neck. [Melendez] then announced his first demand that Sanders hand over all the money in the truck. As Sanders pleaded with [Melendez] not to shoot him, he was ordered from the vehicle, then forced to walk toward [Melendez] and hand over the money. Relieved of his money, Sanders turned and started back toward the truck where Seagraves still sat wounded and unable to move. Before he reached the vehicle, [Melendez] fired again and struck Sanders in the back. In rapid succession, [Melendez] fired three more shots and all struck Sanders in either the back or the arm. Sanders finally toppled forward through the open driver’s side door and came to rest in the floorboard of the truck with his head resting against Seagraves’ leg. As Sanders lay dying, [Melendez] approached, reached through the cab with the gun in hand, placed the muzzle next to Seagraves’s forehead, and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. The gun was empty, so [Melendez] simply turned and walked back in the direction he had come. In the end, Seagraves received two bullet wounds; the initial wound when [Melendez] first approached and a second wound received from a bullet that had passed through the decedent and struck Seagraves’s arm. Sanders was shout four times and died within minutes.

https://casetext.com/case/melendez-v-cockrell-2

Anthony Medina Texas Death Row

Anthony Medina was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murders of two children. According to court documents Anthony Medina was involved in a drive by shooting that would take the lives of a nine year old boy and a fifteen year old girl. Anthony Medina was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Anthony Medina 2022 Information

SID Number: 05183355

TDCJ Number: 00999204

Name: MEDINA,ANTHONY SHAWN

Race: H

Gender: M

Age: 47

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW

Current Facility: POLUNSKY

Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: YES

Anthony Medina More News

Reviewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979), Nelson v. State, 848 S.W.2d 126, 131 (Tex.Crim.App.1992), the evidence in appellant’s case establishes that shortly after midnight on January 1, 1996, appellant drove past the Rodriguez residence and opened fire into a crowd of children and teenagers standing in the well-lit front yard of the home. The young people, mostly family, were attending a New Year’s Eve celebration. Anthony Medina sprayed gunfire across the front yard and into the group of people at about five to seven feet from the ground and from only a few feet away from some of the victims. Appellant’s gunfire struck several cars, the home, and three people. Rocio Pedrosa was shot in the abdomen. She survived.

The capital murder victims-David Rodriguez, 8, and his sister Diane Rodriguez, 13-were nearest to appellant’s gunfire. David sustained two fatal wounds; one pierced his head while the other pierced his arm and traveled into his chest. Diane sustained a non-fatal wound which pierced her right breast and a fatal wound which pierced her left shoulder and traveled into her neck. The murder weapon was a Russian SKS assault rifle with eight and one quarter pounds trigger pull. Johnny Valadez, who was in the car with appellant, testified that appellant affirmed that he had shot “her” because “he saw fat meat fly off.” ¹

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/tx-court-of-criminal-appeals/1079289.html

Paul Slater Texas Death Row

Paul Slater was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a double murder. According to court documents Paul Slater would shoot and kill two people during a drug deal gone bad. Paul Slater would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Paul Slater 2022 Information

SID Number: 05280592

TDCJ Number: 00999208

Name: SLATER,PAUL WAYNE

Race: B

Gender: M

Age: 47

Maximum Sentence Date: DEATH ROW

Current Facility: POLUNSKY

Projected Release Date: DEATH ROW

Parole Eligibility Date: DEATH ROW

Inmate Visitation Eligible: YES

Paul Slater More News

A Houston-area death row prisoner convicted of killing two men in a drug deal gone bad lost out Monday in a federal appeals court, a ruling that could move him one step closer to an execution date.

Attorneys for Paul Wayne Slater, a brain-damaged junior high dropout with a low IQ, argued it was bad lawyering earlier in the case that helped earn him a death sentence more than two decades ago for a shooting in the bay of a Houston car wash.

“This case today, they would never seek the death penalty,” said defense attorney Randy Schaffer. “I think the death penalty was probably sought in this case because it was a time when they were seeking the death penalty just for sport.”

In July 1995, Slater was scheduled to meet up with three men to sell them some crack, according to court filings. Would-be buyers Eric Washington, Roddrick Martin and Glenn Andrews showed up with $3,000 on hand for the exchange.

Then, two men pulled up in a Cadillac and there’s some dispute as to what happened next, but ultimately Slater fatally shot Martin and Andrews while Washington fled the scene.

A month later, police tracked down the blood-soaked Cadillac. A few weeks after that, Slater confessed – though he said the slayings were in self-defense, according to court records.

“There are very few cases in which the state has sought the death penalty in a drug transaction, where the victims were drug dealers,” Schaffer said Monday.

Even so, Slater was sentenced to death in 1996, after his trial lawyer failed to request a jury instruction on murder as a lesser-included offense – a move that would have allowed for a self-defense claim.

In the years since his conviction, Slater has also lodged appeals blaming his trial attorney for failing to bring up claims of brain damage and learning disabilities. A 1991 evaluation placed his IQ at 77, though some tests have scored him as low at 63, according to court filings.

“The law is a little schizophrenic on whether you can bring in new evidence at this point in a case,” Schaffer said. “It’s really complicated stuff but long story short 5th Circuit said, ‘No, you can’t and even if you could we don’t think it would have made a difference.'”

Now, Slater’s defense team can file for a rehearing in the 5th Circuit, try their luck in the Supreme or go back to state court, Schaffer said.

“And truly this is a case for a commutation for a life sentence,” he added, “so at the appropriate time we’ll be asking to meet with District Attorney Kim Ogg.”

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Houston-death-row-inmate-behind-1995-double-12499841.php