John Thuesen was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a double murder. According to court documents John Thuesen would shoot and kill Rachel Joiner and her brother, Travis. Rachel Joiner had previously dated John Thuesen but asked for a break. John Thuesen would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected claims filed by a man convicted of capital murder in the 2009 slayings of his girlfriend and her brother in College Station.
John Thuesen had alleged in court documents 20 claims of ineffective counsel during his 2010 trial in the shooting death of Rachel Joiner and her brother, Travis. He also filed two claims related to evidence and the constitutionality of the death sentence. All 22 claims were rejected by the court, documents show
Judge Travis Bryan III, of the 272nd District Court, sentenced Thuesen to death in May 2010 for the March 2009 slayings. According to a previous story in The Eagle, Thuesen had been dating Rachel Joiner for about six months before she asked him for space in the relationship, roughly a week before her death. A story in The Eagle’s archives states that the night of the siblings’ deaths, Thuesen had been waiting at Rachel’s house for her to come home. Thuesen shot her after they started arguing, then shot her brother when he came out of his bedroom after hearing the gunfire. The siblings were pronounced dead later that night. Thuesen called authorities and confessed to the murders.
Blaine Milam was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murder of a thirteen month old girl. According to court documents Blaine Milam would strike the thirteen month old child repeatedly causing her death. Blane Milam would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
A man on death row convicted in the 2008 death of his girlfriend’s child in Rusk County has been granted a second stay of execution, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals announced Friday.
Blaine Keith Milam, 31, was sentenced to death for the December 2008 killing of 13-month-old Amora Bain Carson. His execution had been scheduled for Thursday.
Milam also was granted a stay in January 2019, just one day before his execution.
His attorney filed a request for a stay of execution Jan. 11, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted the stay and remanded the case to trial court. An intellectual disability hearing has been ordered.
Milam’s girlfriend at the time and Amora’s mother, Jesseca Carson, is serving life in prison for the crime.
At 10:37 a.m. on Dec. 2, 2008, Milam called 911 from his trailer outside of Tatum, according to court documents.
“My name is Blaine Milam, and my daughter, I just found her dead,” Milam said on the 911 call.
Later, he told law enforcement that Amora was not his daughter but Jesseca’s, his fiance. Milam said he was “raising that baby,” according to court documents.
Milam and Carson initially told police that they left the child unattended in the trailer, stating that someone must have broken in and attacked her.
According to evidence presented in Carson’s trial, in addition to 24 bite marks on Amora’s body, the child had head trauma, a torn liver, genitalia trauma, several fractured bones and bruises.
Carson later admitted that “she was present when (Milam) performed an exorcism of the demons possessing the body of the child.”
She also told police that after Milam killed the girl, they drove to Henderson to pawn items to pay for another exorcism but decided to use some of the money to buy cigarettes instead.
Milam and Carson both were 18 at the time of the child’s death.
During the investigation, authorities at the time alleged that the couple killed the child with a hammer.
In a 2019 appeal, Milam and his attorney disputed the bite mark testimony. That evidence had proved key in his trial as the prosecution attributed several bite marks to Milam.
His attorneys also claimed he was not eligible for execution because he is intellectually disabled.
Donald Bess was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the sexual assault and murder of Angela Somata. According to court documents Donald Bess would break into Angela Somata residence where he would sexually assault and murder her in 1984. Donald Bess would not be arrested until 2008. At the time Donald Bess was a convicted rapist out on parole. Donald Bess would be convicted and sentenced to death
A man convicted of raping and murdering an SMU student in 1984 lost his appeal in the Texas Court of Appeals. He will remain on death row.
Donald Bess was sentenced to death in 2010 for raping and murdering 20-year-old SMU student Angela Samota in October 1984. Police solved the case in 2008 when Dallas Police matched Bess’ DNA to Samota’s slaying, according toTheDallas Morning News. The DNA technology was not available at the time of the rape-slaying.
Bess entered Samota’s apartment asking to use the phone and bathroom in her off-campus apartment. He then sexually assaulted her and stabbed her, according toThe News.
He was out on parole in 1985 for aggravated rape and aggravated kidnapping when he raped another woman, according to The News. He was sentenced to life in prison.
His death sentence came in 2010. The jury deliberated for less than an hour, The News reported.
Bess does not have an execution date set. He could still file appeals in federal courts, according to NBC-DFW.
Garland Harper was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a triple murder. According to court documents Garland Harper would stab a 38 year old female and a 15 year old female multiple times and strangled a 7 year old female resulting in their deaths. Garland Harper would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.
A Harris County jury deliberated three hours before sentencing Garland Bernell Harper to death Monday for fatally stabbing his 38-year-old girlfriend and strangling her two daughters.
Harper, 40, was living with Triska Lashaun Rose in a southwest Houston condo for several months before beginning to stalk her and accuse her of cheating on him. He eventually tied her up, stabbed her and slit her throat on Oct. 24, 2008, prosecutors said.
Harper also was accused of binding, then strangling Briana Roberson, 15, and Mya Love, 7. Harper was not the children’s father.
After being sentenced by state District Judge Jeannine Barr, Harper would not look at Rose’s brother who said he was “not a man” during a victim impact statement.
“You’re weak. You prey on women,” said Terrence Rose. “I want to say, ‘May God have mercy on your soul’ but I can’t say that now.”
Defense lawyers described Harper as a mentally ill man with a drug problem, which made him delusional, believing Rose was having an affair with a man Harper could never catch.
The two were dating in 1998, when he was arrested for aggravated robbery. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison and released after nine years, according to court records. After his release, the two were together for seven months before her death.
Harper is the fourth person to be sentenced to death since Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos took office in January 2008.
In April, Mabry Joseph Landor III was sentenced to death for the 2008 shooting of Houston police officer Timothy Abernethy.
Two men were also sent to death row after retrials: Robert Fratta, for hiring two men to shoot his wife in 1994, and Raymond DeLeon Martinez, for the 1983 robbery and killing of a tavern owner.
No one in the county was sentenced to death in 2008.
Cortne Robinson was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a robbery murder. According to court documents Cortne Robinson would break into a home of an elderly couple and in the process of robbing it would shoot to death an eighty two year old man. Cortne Robinson would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest criminal court, denied, on Wednesday, Marshall native and death row inmate Cortne Robinson’s application for writ of habeas corpus, which he filed to determine if his detention and death sentence is unlawful.
Robinson was convicted in March 2011 for fatally shooting 82-year-old Frank Zabokrtsky during a September 2009 home invasion in which the victim’s wife was kidnapped and sexually assaulted. Robinson was 18 years old at the time and the first of three co-defendants to stand trial in the case.
Robinson, the person responsible for pulling the trigger who made a rap song about it, was sentenced to death for his actions. He filed an appeal following his conviction; however, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied his appeal in June 2013, and affirmed his conviction and sentence of death.
“As the Court of Criminal Appeals had previously affirmed his conviction and sentence on direct appeal, this now concludes Mr. Robinson’s state appellate review of his death penalty,” Rick Hagan, special lead prosecutor in the case for the state, explained Thursday.
With the state’s final ruling, Robinson can now seek federal review of his sentence in the United States court system.
“Speaking on behalf of the State of Texas in this matter, I am confident that the federal judicial review process will reach the same conclusion as our state courts have and affirm the judgment and death sentence in this case,” said Hagan.
In the court’s final ruling, the appellate court noted that Robinson’s conviction was affirmed on direct appeal in a unanimous decision by this court.
“He now asks this court for relief through a writ of habeas corpus,” the court noted.
Robinson presented 23 allegations in his application in which he challenged the validity of his conviction and sentence. Following a live evidentiary hearing, a trial judge entered findings of fact and conclusions of law and recommended that relief be denied as to all of his allegations.
“The court has reviewed the record with respect to the allegations made by applicant,” the appellate court wrote. “We agree with the trial judge’s recommendation and adopt the trial judge’s findings and conclusions.”
The state writ of habeas corpus hearing Robinson’s case began here in the 71st District Courtroom on Feb. 23, 2014, with visiting judge Joe Clayton of Tyler presiding.
During that time, Robinson was brought to the Harrison County Jail from the Palaski Unit in Livingston. He was represented by attorneys from the State Office of Capital Writs for the hearing. The office is the state government agency tasked with representing defendants in Texas who have been sentenced to death, once their appeals have been exhausted.
After his appeal was rejected and conviction was upheld, the State Office of Capital Writs filed a 240-page application alleging various errors in Robinson’s trial that they believed undermined the validity of the court judgment.
“These allegations center around the contention that Mr. Robinson’s trial attorneys provided ineffective assistance of counsel, not that Mr. Robinson is in fact innocent,” Hagan explained before. “The State denies these allegations.”
The law provides that the trial court take and hear any additional evidence offered in support of the writ and forward to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals its findings of fact and conclusions of law for their review.
One of Robinson’s claims was that the trial counsel was ineffective because he failed to object to the introduction and large volume of evidence concerning Robinson’s accomplice, Travion Young’s sexual assault of the victim’s 82-year-old wife during the home invasion. Robinson claimed that the mention of the sexual assault had no relevance to his case.
“This claim is denied,” the court concluded in their opinion, filed Wednesday. “He has not shown that his attorney performed deficiently.”
The court also denied Robinson’s claim that the trial counsel was ineffective in his case for failure to call an adolescent brain development expert to testify. The court also denied his allegation of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel and his claim that the death sentence is unconstitutional.
“The court rejects the claim as being procedurally barred,” the appellate court wrote. “It is clear that this type of Eighth Amendment claim has been exhausted in both the state and federal system.”
Robinson’s co-defendant Bradney Smith, who was found guilty of capital murder in November 2012, is serving an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole in the case; the other co-defendant, Travion Young, who pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of murder, was sentenced to 60 years in prison
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