Micah Brown Texas Death Row

micah brown

Micah Brown was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murder of his ex wife. According to court documents Micah Brown would shoot and kill his ex wife, Stella Michelle “Doc” Ray, in front of their children. Micah Brown was sentenced to death.

Texas Death Row Inmates List

Micah Brown 2021 Information

NameBrown, Micah
TDCJ Number999580
Date of Birth06/07/1979
Date Received06/10/2013
Age (when Received)34
Education Level (Highest Grade Completed)12
Date of Offense07/20/2011
 Age (at the time of Offense)32
 CountyHunt
 RaceWhite
 GenderMale
 Hair ColorBrown
 Height (in Feet and Inches)6′ 1″
 Weight (in Pounds)198
 Eye ColorHazel
 Native CountyHunt
 Native StateTexas

Micah Brown More News

Micah Crofford Brown has lost the most recent appeal of his death penalty capital murder case.

The Office of Capital Writs & Forensic Warrants argued during an evidentiary hearing last month before 196th District Court Judge Andrew Bench that Brown suffers from an autism spectrum disorder that, had it been presented during his 2013 trial, may have mitigated a jury from issuing a death sentence.

But Bench disagreed in his ruling in the case issued Monday.

“The court recommends that Brown’s Applicant for Writ of Habeas Corpus be denied,” Bench said.

“We are deeply disappointed that the Court rubberstamped the prosecution’s proposed findings recommending that Micah should not get a new trial or sentencing hearing,” said Ashley Steele, Post-Conviction Attorney with the Office of Capital & Forensic Writs. “Micah’s lead trial lawyer has a lengthy history of misconduct in death penalty cases. In this case, it is particularly troubling because Micah has autism, which his trial lawyers did not investigate or present to the jury to help explain Micah’s life history or what led to the crime.”

Testimony during the trial indicated his estranged wife, Stella Michelle “Doc” Ray was shot and killed in Greenville on the night of July 20, 2011 as the result of a dispute with Brown concerning the couple’s two children.

After the conviction and death sentence were upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, a post conviction writ was filed in 2015 by the Office of Capital Writs & Forensic Warrants, a Texas state public defender office that represents individuals in state post-conviction litigation.

The 124-page document listed multiple alleged issues with Brown’s conviction and sentence, including ineffective assistance by the trial and appeals defense attorneys, improper arguments by prosecutors during the punishment phase, and failure to present evidence during the punishment phase that Brown suffers from autism spectrum disorder.

The condition is a developmental disorder that affects communication and behavior, which may have mitigated the jury’s decision to issue the death penalty.

During the October hearing, the office’s Natalie Corvington said the trial defense team failed to listen to a mitigation specialist who suggested Brown may have the disorder, which could be responsible for how he appeared to have acted as remorseless and unemotional  during the commission of the murder, during interviews and interrogations and while testifying in his defense during trial.

Tina Miranda with the Texas Attorney General’s Office responded by noting how defense attorneys used information provided by mitigation specialists that Brown suffers from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. She said the disorder would have accounted for many of the same symptoms.

“I don’t know what else counsel could have done,” Miranda said, adding some 80 of Brown’s family members and friends were interviewed by the defense about the case, none of whom spoke of the potential for Brown having autism.

Brown does not yet have an execution date scheduled

https://www.heraldbanner.com/news/local_news/appeal-denied-in-murder-case/article_4d5e76a2-e3b8-11e8-b6e0-2f6fb04046d6.html

Willie Jenkins Texas Death Row

willie jenkins

Willie Jenkins was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a sexual assault and murder that happened decades before. According to court documents Willie Jenkins would force his way into the victims home and would sexually assault the victim before killing her. This case took place in 1974 and Willie Jenkins was not arrested until 2010. Willie Jenkins was convicted and sentenced to death.

Texas Death Row Inmates List

Willie Jenkins 2021 Information

NameJenkins, Willie Roy
TDCJ Number999581
Date of Birth07/30/1953
Date Received06/14/2013
Age (when Received)59
Education Level (Highest Grade Completed)12
Date of Offense11/24/1975
 Age (at the time of Offense)22
 CountyHays
 RaceBlack
 GenderMale
 Hair ColorGray
 Height (in Feet and Inches)6′ 1″
 Weight (in Pounds)269
 Eye ColorBrown
 Native CountyHarris
 Native StateTexas

Willie Jenkins More News

As jurors sentenced convicted killer Willie Roy Jenkins to death on Thursday, the first death sentence in Hays County in more than 20 years, police named Jenkins as a suspect in three unsolved murders dating back to the mid-1970s.

Jenkins, 59, was sentenced to death in the 1975 murder of Sheryl Ann Norris after jurors deliberated for four hours.

Following the sentencing, Cmdr. Penny Dunn of the San Marcos Police Department said that Jenkins is being investigated in two murders that occurred in San Antonio, one in December 1976, the other in May 1977. The victims were Nancy Freese and Linda Hopwood.

Serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed to those murders, but he took credit for hundreds of murders and later recanted. Detectives were always skeptical of Lucas’ confessions in the San Antonio killings and considered Jenkins a suspect at the time of the crimes, Dunn said.

The other murder is believed to have occurred in May 1975, when 19-year-old Marine Jane Ellen Kidder disappeared from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Dunn said. Jenkins was serving in the Marine Corps at that time and was assigned to Camp Lejeune, she said.

Jenkins has not been charged in the three killings. Dunn did not indicate when, or if, charges will be filed against him in those cases, which she said have recently been reopened.

The revelation that Jenkins — who was linked by DNA evidence to the 1975 Norris murder 35 years after the crime — is suspected in three additional killings came at the end of a day in which prosecutors portrayed him as a brutal serial rapist.

While in prison and jail, Jenkins beat fellow inmates bloody and intimidated accused killers who were assigned to share cells with him, they said.

“This defendant has spent the last 35 years earning his trip to death row,” District Attorney Sherri Tibbe told the jury of six men and six women.

The defense presented Jenkins as a man who had no chance. He had a difficult childhood and was sexually preyed upon in his teens, attorney Norman Lansford said. He argued that those circumstances mitigated the crime and asked the jury to spare Jenkins’ life.

Jenkins was convicted May 31 of murdering Norris on Nov. 24, 1975 in her San Marcos apartment. She had been attacked when she went home on her lunch break from work, prosecutors said. She was raped, strangled and drowned in a bathtub. Much of the prosecution’s case rested on DNA evidence that was found on her body.

Jenkins was not identified as a suspect until 2010 when DNA technology had advanced enough to reveal a full DNA profile that could be compared on national databases. Those databases returned a match for Jenkins, who had been forcibly committed to Coalinga State Hospital in California for a pattern of violent sexual behavior following his release from prison on rape charges.

The victim’s sisters were in the courtroom throughout the trial and burst into tears when the sentence was read. They later thanked jurors, law enforcement officials and prosecutors in a statement: “Sheryl has finally received her justice — her day in court.”

During the punishment phase of the trial, prosecutors outlined Jenkins’ previous rape convictions. He had pleaded guilty to one of the rapes in California four days before Norris was murdered. Jenkins was out on bail in that case.

Three months after the Norris murder, he was sentenced to six months in jail in California and three years of probation.

Jenkins was convicted of the 1977 rape of a San Antonio woman. After he was released from prison in Texas in 1981, he was extradited to California for violating his probation.

In California, he was again convicted of rape in 1983 and again in 1991. After serving 10 years for the 1991 rape, he was committed to the state hospital in 2001.

“This is the boogeyman,” said prosecutor Lisa Tanner of the Texas Attorney General’s Office. “This man is the personification of everything every woman on earth has learned to fear.”

The prosecution also presented testimony from inmates and staff at Coalinga State Hospital who had been assaulted by Jenkins. Nearly all of the assault victims had to be hospitalized for several days after the attacks.

During his time in Hays County Jail, Jenkins’ fellow inmates Paul Tovar, an accused killer with ties to the Mexican mafia, and Willie Griffin, charged in the 2011 death of an Austin woman and the rape and attempted murder of a 17-year-old girl, both asked to be moved to a different area of the jail away from Jenkins “before somebody gets hurt,” according to jail records.

Lansford said Jenkins was a product of his upbringing in a poor area of Houston, where he was abused and abandoned by his parents and family members.

“This kid never had a chance,” Lansford said. “He was a throwaway from the minute he was born.”

The defense also argued that Jenkins was the victim of sexual predation by his ex-wife, Merle Jenkins. She was 15 years his senior when they met while Willie Jenkins was a high school student in Marion.

Jenkins received a football scholarship to Southwest Texas State University, now Texas State, to play football, but dropped out after the first semester. Jenkins was on leave from the Marine Corps to visit his wife in the hospital in San Antonio on the day Norris was killed.

“We hope this case— the oldest cold case in Texas to be solved—will bring other victims a sense of peace, closure and allow them to move on with their lives,” the Norris family said.

https://www.statesman.com/article/20130614/NEWS/306149708

Naim Muhammad Texas Death Row

naim muhammad

Naim Muhammad was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murders of his two young sons. According to court documents Naim Muhammad would drown his two young sons 5-year-old Naim and 3-year-old Elijah. Naim Muhammad would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Texas Death Row Inmates List

Naim Muhammad 2021 Information

NameMuhammad, Naim Rasool
TDCJ Number999582
Date of Birth05/03/1979
Date Received07/09/2013
Age (when Received)34
Education Level (Highest Grade Completed)10
Date of Offense08/22/2011
 Age (at the time of Offense)32
 CountyDallas
 RaceBlack
 GenderMale
 Hair ColorBlack
 Height (in Feet and Inches)5′ 9″
 Weight (in Pounds)234
 Eye ColorBrown
 Native CountyDallas
 Native StateTexas

Naim Muhammad More News

A North Texas man was sentenced to death on Thursday for drowning his two young sons in a Dallas-area creek.

The Dallas County jury took about three and a half hours to sentence Naim Rasool Muhammad. The same jury took less than 10 minutes last week to find him guilty of capital murder in the deaths of 5-year-old Naim and 3-year-old Elijah.

“I apologize for bringing any pain and hurt on anybody for the actions that I have caused to you all,” Muhammad said after the sentence was announced.

He said that the only reason he did it was because he wanted to be a father and thought that was being taken away.

Muhammad killed Naim and Elijah in August 2011. Authorities say he forced the boys and their mother, Kametra Sampson, into a car and started driving on what was supposed to be Naim’s first day of school.

“You’ve shown that you have no boundaries, that nothing is sacred to you — not even the bond between a father and son,” Sampson said after the verdict was announced.

In closing arguments, prosecutor Tammy Kemp called Muhammad “a monster” and “100 percent pure evil.” That angered Muhammad’s mother, who stood up and shouted, “That is not a monster. He is my son.” She bolted from the courtroom but could be heard shouting in the corridor outside as Kemp resumed her closing argument.

Defense attorney Paul Johnson told jurors that the children’s deaths were, indeed, a horrible crime — one deserving of life imprisonment without parole. He told jurors that Muhammad’s neglect by a mother who was a crack-addicted prostitute and upbringing amid violence and sexual abuse warped him. That, Johnson said, was sufficient mitigation to spare him the death penalty.

“If it’s not this case, what is it?” he said. “He is not evil, but he has committed an evil act.”

During a taped confession from an interview with investigators that played in court May 14, Muhammad confessed to the murders.

The video showed Muhammad telling investigators that he told the children to pretend they were swimming and then held them underwater until they drowned. As the interview played, the defendant sobbed so loudly it could be heard in the hallway.

Jurors took less than 10 minutes the following day to convict Muhammad of capital murder.

Prosecutors said Muhammad is a threat to society and that there is no reason he should be allowed to live.

“I don’t have to recall the facts of the case because, although it was not filled with blood or gore, it was a horror unimagined,” prosecutor Sherre Sweet said.

Muhammad, who has a criminal record spanning 20 years, killed his sons after their mother began dating someone new, prosecutors say.

“It was the ultimate textbook family violence power and control play — ‘If I can’t get you to do what I want you to do through violence, I will go to your very heartstrings,'” Sweet said.

Kemp detailed for the jury, step by step, the moments leading to the children’s deaths south of Dallas.

She said Muhammad used a brick to force the boys and their mother into his vehicle as she walked the children to school.

Their mother jumped out of the vehicle at an intersection and alerted a nearby constable, who called police but did not pursue the fleeing vehicle. Constables are mainly process servers in civil cases.

Muhammad’s mother later called 911 to say her son had drowned the boys and she had their unresponsive bodies.

Court records show Muhammad had a history of violence. Sampson told jurors that Muhammad routinely beat her, often for things as small as burning rice. Texas Child Protective Services officials said they were monitoring Sampson and the couple’s three children after receiving a report of family violence.

Authorities have said Muhammad also tried but failed to take his youngest child, a 1-year-old, from another location earlier in the day.

The children had been under watch by Texas Child Protective Services since early 2011, after the agency received a referral of family violence. CPS declined to say who made the referral but said the three children and their mother were living together in a shelter at the time.

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/jury-punishment-dad-drowning-sons-naim-muhammad/2122492/

Obel Cruz-Garcia Texas Death Row

obel cruz-garcia

Obel Cruz-Garcia was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murder of a six year old boy. According to court documents Obel Cruz-Garcia and Carmeno Martinez along with a third party who has not been identified forced there way into a home where they would sexually assault the child’s mother before abducting the child. The child skeletal remains would be found a month later. Obel Cruz-Garcia would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Texas Death Row Inmates List

Obel Cruz-Garcia 2021 Information

NameCruz-Garcia, Obel
TDCJ Number999584
Date of Birth07/08/1967
Date Received11/01/2013
Age (when Received)46
Education Level (Highest Grade Completed)9th
Date of Offense09/30/1992
 Age (at the time of Offense)25
 CountyHarris
 RaceHispanic
 GenderMale
 Hair ColorBlack
 Height (in Feet and Inches)5′ 11″
 Weight (in Pounds)194
 Eye ColorBrown
 Native CountySanto Domingo
 Native StateDominican Republic

Obel Cruz-Garcia More News

After deliberating four hours on Monday, Harris County jurors found Obel Cruz-Garcia guilty of capital murder in the 1992 death of 6-year-old Angelo Garcia Jr.

The boy’s mother, who was sitting in the gallery with family members, sobbed softly in her hands as the verdict was read. Cruz-Garcia did not react.

The conviction means the 45-year-old will face the death penalty or life in prison when the punishment phase of the trial begins Tuesday. Under 1992 law, when the crime occurred, Cruz-Garcia would be parole eligible after 35 years.

Both sides rested last week after four days of testimony. On Monday, defense lawyers argued that a lack of injuries on skeletal remains, the possibility of consensual sex with the victim’s mother and the absence of motive point away from Cruz-Garcia’s culpability.

“There was no reason for Obel Cruz-Garcia to do this. He gained nothing from it,” attorney Skip Cornelius told jurors in closing arguments. “There’s lots of reasonable doubt in this case.”

Prosecutors fired back that the defense was talking in half-truths and pointing at straw men.

“I have to be responsible for the whole story, not just a part of the story,” said Assistant Harris County District Attorney Natalie Tise. “There’s a whole lot of missing pieces in what the defense has said.”

Cruz-Garcia, 45, was convicted of kidnapping and killing Angelo, whose parents said they were part of the defendant’s cocaine-trafficking operation.

During a home invasion just before midnight on Sept. 30, 1992, two men wearing ski masks broke into the south Houston apartment where Angelo lived with his mother and stepfather.

One of the men allegedly sexually assaulted his mother, then they tied the couple up and ransacked the home. They fled with Angelo in a car driven by a third man, who testified thatCruz-Garcia and the other suspect took the child to a Baytown lake where he was stabbed and his body was weighted down.

A month later, the child’s badly decomposed remains were found in the water. The defense pointed out that no injuries were apparent from the bones that were found. They also pointed out that the getaway driver could be lying to save himself from a capital murder charge. He is not charged in the crime.

Prosecutors said other evidence, including Cruz-Garcia’s DNA being found during the woman’s sexual assault examination, corroborated the getaway driver’s story.

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Cruz-Garcia-convicted-of-killing-6-year-old-boy-4666341.php

Franklin Davis Texas Death Row

franklin davis

Franklin Davis was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for a murder. According to court documents Franklin Davis pretending to be someone else met the victim through a social media set and arranged a meeting. The victim was surprised to see him and agreed to get into his vehicle to talk through a recent indictment regarding Davis sexually assaulting the victim. Franklin Davis would drive to a remote location where he would murder the victim, sixteen year old Shania Gray. Franklin Davis would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death.

Texas Death Row Inmates List

Franklin Davis 2021 Information

NameDavis, Franklin
TDCJ Number999585
Date of Birth01/17/1982
Date Received11/21/2013
Age (when Received)31
Education Level (Highest Grade Completed)11
Date of Offense09/06/2012
 Age (at the time of Offense)30
 CountyDallas
 RaceBlack
 GenderMale
 Hair ColorBlack
 Height (in Feet and Inches)5′ 11″
 Weight (in Pounds)250
 Eye ColorBrown
 Native CountySt. Louis
 Native StateMissouri

Franklin Davis More News

A 31-year-old Mesquite man was sentenced to death Saturday for murdering a teenage baby sitter who had accused him of rape.

Franklin Davis admitted to shooting 16-year-old Shania Gray two times at an Irving park in September 2012 after picking her up from school in Carrollton. He then stepped on her throat to stop her breathing.

At the time, Davis was poised to stand trial on a charge that he sexually assaulted Shania. He has repeatedly denied that charge and said during the trial that he killed Shania to keep her from testifying against him.

Davis cracked a smile and stood with his hands in his pockets when state District Judge Mike Snipes read the sentence Saturday morning. Davis then shook hands with his attorneys and was escorted out of the courtroom.

He had been waiting to learn his punishment since before lunch Friday, when jury deliberations began. Jurors were sequestered in a hotel overnight and reached their decision within about 30 minutes of reconvening Saturday.

The resolution brought relief and tears to the dozen or so of Shania’s friends and relatives gathered in the courtroom. A few hugged or nodded their heads firmly upon hearing the verdict. Some wore T-shirts that said, “No more violence.”

“I just feel like justice has been served,” said Toni Alexander, a family friend of Shania. “It is a good day. It is — even though a child has been lost.

Prosecutors also praised the jury’s decision. They pointed to Davis’ violent past as a sign that he is a future danger to society. They presented evidence of several assaults on women and, after his arrest, a brief escape from Dallas County custody. A deputy was injured during the escape.

The prosecutors also argued that justice was important for Shania, who had a right to speak out about her abuse.

“Shania Gray finally has closure,” prosecutor Brandon Birmingham said. “He tried everything he could to drag her name through the mud for the last year and a half, and a jury finally stood up to him.”

Before he killed Shania, Davis called and texted her pretending to be a man named “D” and asking repeatedly about the alleged rapes. He testified that he was conducting his own investigation because he did not believe the police or attorneys were properly looking into the case.

Davis also sent himself fake texts that appeared to come from Shania’s phone. The messages denied the sexual assault allegations. He told jurors during the guilt-innocence phase of the trial that he killed Shania because “she ruined my life.”

Defense attorneys focused on Davis’ past and urged jurors not to base their verdict on emotion.

They said Davis grew up in a violent, drug-ridden area of St. Louis, “an urban American nightmare.” They said he had been molested by his siblings and grandfather and neglected by his mother, who was raped and murdered in 1997.

“It would have been better if those children had been raised by wolves,” defense attorney Brady Wyatt said during the trial. “Wolves protect their pups.”

The defense attorneys declined to comment while leaving the courthouse.

Prosecutors still must navigate a long legal process before Davis can be executed. All death penalty sentences are granted automatic review by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Other legal challenges are likely. The average Texas death row inmate spends more than a decade behind bars.

But Shania’s friends and family said they were happy to have the trial over. It has been a difficult year, they said.

Shania’s mother, Sherry James, who sat in the front row with her arms crossed during much of the trial, missed the verdict because her son was in the hospital. After the punishment was announced, her friends and family called her from the courthouse hallway. She could be heard crying over the speaker phone.

James said during the trial that her surviving son is autistic and doesn’t speak. She said he can’t express emotion or understand what happened to his sister but he knows she is gone.

Sometimes, she told the jury, she plays him videos from her phone of Shania singing.

“He just kisses the phone,” she said. “That was his best friend.”

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2013/11/17/franklin-davis-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-teen-who-accused-him-of-rape/