George H. Whitaker, III was sentenced to death for the murder of Kiki Carrier, 17, of Crosby, Texas. Whitaker had been dating Kiki's sister Catina, who had recently left him because of abusive behavior. On the day of the murder, Whitaker drove to his former girlfriend's parent's home outside Crosby and told her mother that he was returning some of her belongings. When he was told to leave them on the porch, Whitaker instead pulled out a .45-caliber pistol and forced his way inside. Whitaker forced Kiki's mother and her 5-year-old sister into the living room where he shot the mother once in the chest. Whitaker followed the child as she fled upstairs, and he found Kiki and shot her once in the head, killing her. Mrs. Carrier heard Kiki yell, "please don't hurt me" before she was shot. Whitaker then pistol-whipped the young child, fracturing her skill in two places. Returning to the first floor, Whitaker saw the mother fleeing through the front door. He got more ammunition out of his vehicle, then chased the mother behind the house and shot her a second time in the chest. She survived her wounds, but suffers from partial paralysis in her right arm and hand. Kiki's younger sister was revived after some effort and was life-flighted to the hospital where she underwent extensive surgery for her blunt head trauma. She still suffers from some permanent neurological damage. Whitaker was tracked to his apartment and attempted to escape by jumping out a window. Whitaker was shot in the hip when police observed him reaching for a weapon. At trial, an ex-girlfriend testified about her relationship with Whitaker. She stated Whitaker hit her in the head about four times with his fist. Whitaker also struck her a second time a month or two later. In a third incident, Whitaker hit the woman with his fist giving her a black eye and causing her to bleed. In a fourth incident, when the woman found out Whitaker was seeing Catina Carrier, she confronted him about it. Whitaker denied it and then hit her with his fist on her head several times. Catina Carrier also testified as to the nature of her relationship with Whitaker. She stated that there were occasions when Whitaker physically and verbally abused her. In the first incident, Catina, her daughter, and Whitaker were in Whitaker's vehicle. Catina was driving, and she missed the turn to a movie theater. Whitaker hit Catina in the temple in front of her daughter. In a second incident, Catina was asleep, and when she woke up, Whitaker was choking her. Catina lost consciousness. Whitaker said he did it because he had a dream she was cheating on him. In a third incident, after she left work, Whitaker told Catina that she was embarrassing to him. Then, he started punching her in the back of her head with his fists while he was driving. After this, Catina made arrangements for her and her daughter to leave.

On 8/9/92, Gregory L. Bryant-Bey murdered 48-year-old Dale Pinkelman in Pinky's Collectibles in Toledo. Dale was the owner of the retail store. Bey stabbed Dale Pinkelman in the chest, stole merchandise from the store and took his car. He was also convicted in a similar murder of Peter Mihas, owner of The Board Room restaurant in downtown Toledo. It was the similarity between the two murders that ultimately led to the death sentence. Both men were stabbed in the chest. Their pants were removed and their shoes were lined up next to their bodies. Bryant-Bey was convicted first and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the murder of Mr. Mihas. Evidence from that case later helped to convict him in the Pinkelman murder. Police officers in Toledo, Ohio, responded to the scene of an apparent murder/robbery. At the scene, the body of Dale Pinkelman was lying on the floor of his store, Pinkelman’s Collectibles, dead from a single stab wound to the chest. Pinkelman’s body was in a peculiar state — his pants and shoes had been removed, such that he was lying in his underwear and socks. His shoes were placed neatly next to his body, but his pants were missing and, in fact, were never recovered. The police discovered valuable items on Pinkelman’s person, including a gold necklace, rings, and two watches, but there were other items of value for which the police could not account, including merchandise from the store, cash from the register, and Pinkelman’s car from the parking lot. The police also discovered a fingerprint and a palm print on a glass display case approximately three feet from Pinkelman’s body, for which they could not identify an owner. Despite the peculiar circumstances of the crime and the promising discovery of the finger- and palm prints, the police had no suspect for the apparent murder/robbery and no solid leads. A few months later, in November 1992, the police found the body of Peter Mihas on the ground outside his restaurant, the Boardroom Restaurant, dead from several stab wounds to the chest. Mihas’s pants had been removed and his shoes were placed neatly next to his body. His jewelry remained on his person. Toledo Detective William Gray immediately recognized the similarities between the Mihas murder/robbery and the unsolved Pinkelman case. An informant alerted police of Bey’s possible involvement with the Mihas murder and when the police confronted Bey with evidence of his guilt, he confessed to murdering and robbing Mihas. Due to the unusual similarities of the crime scenes, the police compared Bey’s finger- and palm prints to the unidentified prints found on the glass display case in Pinkelman’s store. The prints matched. The police also found Pinkelman’s car less than two blocks from Bey’s residence. Armed with this evidence, the police questioned Bey concerning the Pinkelman murder. Bey initially denied that he knew Pinkelman and denied having ever been in his store, but later, Bey admitted that he had purchased a watch from Pinkelman’s store on credit. Bey also told the police that he had returned to the store and asked Pinkelman for more time to pay for the watch, but Pinkelman had refused and demanded payment. When the officers asked Bey if he had ever harmed Pinkelman or taken his car, Bey replied that he did not remember and asked to terminate the questioning. The grand jury returned a four-count indictment, charging two counts of aggravated murder and two counts of aggravated robbery. The aggravated-murder charges each contained the same specification, namely, aggravated murder in the course of an aggravated robbery, which, if found beyond a reasonable doubt, would render Bey eligible for the death penalty under Ohio law. Bey moved to sever the trials, so that the Mihas charges (he had confessed to) would be tried separately from the Pinkelman charges. The court granted the motion. The State prosecuted the Mihas murder first. The jury convicted Bey of both counts — aggravated murder with the corresponding specification, and aggravated robbery — and recommended life imprisonment with eligibility for parole after thirty years. At the conclusion of the trial on the Pinkelman murder, the jury convicted Bey on all counts and specifications, and recommended a sentence of death. UPDATE: Gregory Bryant-Bey was executed on November 19, 2008. After the execution, Jay Clark, a son-in-law of Pinkelman, thanked detectives, judges and others involved in Bryant-Bey's conviction. "This is a difficult day. There aren't any winners on either side," Clark said.

Robert Jean Hudson was sentenced to death for the murder of Edith Kendrick and the attempted murder of her 9-year-old son. At approximately 11:00 p.m. on May 6, 1999, Hudson telephoned Edith Kendrick, his ex-girlfriend. Hudson heard a man’s voice in the background and suspected that Edith had another man in her apartment, which upset him. When he arrived at her apartment and knocked on the door she would not open it. Edith was inside the apartment with Michael Spearman. Hudson began yelling and kicking the door, saying that he was going to kill both of them. Hudson kicked the door open and saw Edith standing next to the bed and Spearman getting up from the couch while pulling his pants up. Edith attempted to intervene between Spearman and Hudson, who began swinging a knife at her. Spearman ran out of a second exit and called 911 from a pay telephone. As Hudson was slashing Edith, her eight-year-old son Colby got between Hudson and his mother. Hudson inflicted severe cuts on Colby’s throat, neck, and fingers, and the boy ran bleeding from the apartment. Edith fled to the stairs at the front balcony where Hudson stabbed her repeatedly. Witness Michael Munoz testified that he saw the attack from his vehicle in the apartment parking lot. Munoz said he saw Edith come crashing out of the apartment onto the balcony, fall to her knees, and hit her head on the guardrail. According to Munoz, Hudson immediately followed, grabbed Edith’s hair, and pulled her backwards. Munoz testified that while Edith was on her back Hudson stabbed her six to eight times and that he raised his arm as high as he could before stabbing her. Edith was left in a large pool of blood and died from the multiple stab wounds, three of which penetrated her heart. Each of the stab wounds would have been separately fatal. Police arrived on the scene quickly and found Hudson at a nearby convenience store. They took him back to Edith’s apartment where witnesses identified him. Inside the disarrayed apartment, police found blood splattered all over and an open purse on the couch. Spearman told police that Edith’s purse had contained cash and a new watch, and that it was not on the couch before Hudson arrived. At the police station, police found a ladies’ watch and $275 with blood on it in Hudson’s pocket. Police recovered the knife on the ground outside the apartment, and a witness who worked with Hudson testified that he had seen Hudson carrying a similar knife at work. After being given his Miranda warnings, Hudson signed a written statement confessing to Edith’s killing. At the punishment phase of trial, the state called only two witnesses. A fingerprint technician introduced evidence of Hudson’s prior convictions, including burglary and a previous murder. A woman who worked at the jail commissary testified that Hudson had exposed himself and masturbated in front of her while he was being held pending trial. The defense called no witnesses at either the guilt/innocence or the punishment stage of trial. In 1986, Hudson was paroled after serving less than 2 years of a 5 year sentence for burglary. He was returned to prison in December 1988 for a 6-year sentence on a car theft conviction, but was paroled in April of the next year. He was sent to prison again in March 1992 on a 20-year sentence for forgery and was paroled after serving 6 and a half years.