Harris County juries sentenced more than 200 people to death during a 20-year period beginning in 1979 when Johnny Holmes was the district attorney. Some have died by lethal injection and some have been resentenced or succumbed to old age, but many remain on death row, serving out their sentences with no execution date in sight.
Sixty-four of the 174 men and women currently on death row were sentenced in Harris County. Eleven of those inmates — 10 men and one woman — have been in solitary confinement for more than three decades. The information below, in chronological order, was extracted from Texas Department of Criminal Justice records.
Clarence Jordan, 69, is a Black man convicted of capital murder in the October 14, 1977, shooting death of 40-year-old Joe L. Williams, a clerk at Rice Food Market in Houston. Several employees identified Jordan as the robber, according to TDCJ records. Jordan was later implicated in eight other aggravated robberies in the Houston area. Prior to his capital murder conviction, Jordan worked as a busboy and completed seven years of education.
“Jordan has a history of bizarre behavior, claiming at one point that Jesus Christ had endowed him with unique and superior abilities,” according to prison records. He was transferred to TDCJ in 1978 and is now housed at the W.J. “Jim” Estelle Unit in Huntsville, which has a geriatric medical facility and offers mental health services. Jordan has one prior conviction for “robbery by assault.”
Willie Washington, 66, is a Black man who, prior to his capital murder conviction, served less than a year in the state prison system for possession of a short-barrel firearm.
Washington was convicted in the December 1985 shootings of grocery store employees Kiflemariam Tareh and Yemane Kidane in Houston. The employees were shot after Washington was given $80 to $100 in cash and food stamps from the register. Kidane, who was working behind the counter, was shot in the jaw and underwent surgery. Tareh, who Washington held at gunpoint during the course of the robbery, was shot in the right temple and died at the scene, according to prison records.
Washington fled on foot and was arrested after returning to the scene of the crime with the money stolen from the store still in his pocket.
The inmate arrived at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit in Livingston in 1985 and remains there today. He previously worked as a truck driver and “warehouseman” and completed 11 years of education.
Warren Rivers, 58, is a Black man convicted in the May 1987 sexual assault and stabbing death of 11-year-old Carl Nance Jr. in Houston.
Nance was lured into an abandoned house where he was sexually assaulted, beaten and sexually mutilated with a broomstick, according to prison records. The boy was then stabbed four times in the back and chest with a knife. Rivers was arrested after people told police they saw him with the boy before the killing. Also Rivers reportedly bragged about having killed someone and leaving them for dead. He later confessed to the crime.
Rivers, a construction worker with a seventh-grade education, had no prior convictions and entered the TDCJ system in 1988. He is housed at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston.
Daryl Wheatfall, 59, is a Black man convicted in the November 1990 killing of James Fitzgerald, 62, and his wife L.B. Fitzgerald, 64, over a $50 debt. Wheatfall and co-defendant Mack Terrell went to the Fitzgerald home to collect the debt from Mr. Fitzgerald and killed the couple when he could not pay.
Each victim was shot three times in the head with a .22-caliber pistol, according to prison records. The couple’s son, James Fitzgerald Jr., was shot in the abdomen but survived to identify the suspects. Records show that two days before the Fitzgeralds were killed, Wheatfall entered a crack house and shot three people in the head, one of whom died. He then allegedly went to a garage and stabbed another man more than 25 times, causing the man’s death.
Wheatfall, a laborer and mechanic who earned a high school equivalency diploma, had previous convictions for aggravated assault, burglary of a motor vehicle with intent to commit theft, auto theft and criminal mischief. He re-entered the TDCJ system in 1992 and remains at the Polunsky Unit.
Terrell, Wheatfall’s alleged accomplice, was sentenced to 50 years in exchange for testimony against his co-defendant. Terrell is no longer listed in the TDCJ system, but it’s unclear whether he was released or died in custody.
Brian Davis, 56, is a white man convicted in the August 1991 murder of 31-year-old Michael Alan Foster at his Humble apartment. Davis and a female picked Foster up at a Montrose bar and drove him to his apartment. “There, Foster, who was retarded, was stabbed 11 times, seven times in the heart,” according to prison records. Six days later, Davis and his female friend picked up another man from a bar, robbed him and stabbed him with a knife. The man survived the attack and identified the perpetrators as skinheads. The initials NSSH, standing for National Socialist Skin Heads, were found written on a wall of Foster’s apartment.
According to a 2002 news story, Davis’ ex-wife, the female who allegedly was present at the time of Foster’s death, was not charged with Foster’s murder but was sentenced to 40 years for the robbery and stabbing that occurred a week after Foster’s death. She has since been released.
Davis, a bridge builder, had previous convictions for delivery of marijuana and escape from a halfway house. The inmate, who has been in the TDCJ system since 1992, was set for execution in 2002 but granted a reprieve because his lawyers argued his IQ of 74 indicates an intellectual disability. He had a stroke in September and was moved to a medical unit in Huntsville.
William Mason, 71, is a white man convicted in the January 1991 kidnapping and murder of his wife, Deborah Ann Mason. Deborah Mason was beaten, bound and gagged by her husband at their residence after he complained of her playing the radio too loud, according to prison records.
He put her in the trunk of their car and drove to the San Jacinto River, where he crushed her skull with a rock. He then placed her body inside plastic garbage bags, weighted the bags with rocks and threw them in the river. Her body was found 10 days later on the riverbank.
Mason, a tailor, has a high school equivalency diploma and has previous convictions in Harris County for theft, burglary, “assault to murder with malice aforethought,” murder and aggravated robbery. He has been housed at the Polunsky Unit since 1992.
Eugene Broxton, 70, is a Black man convicted in the May 1991 robbery and murder of Sheila Dockens of Louisiana. Dockens and her husband, Waylon Dockens, were inside a Channelview motel room when Broxton gained entrance by pretending to be with the motel’s management. He pistol-whipped the couple, bound Sheila Dockens’ hands and feet, and shot her in the chest. Her husband survived a shot to the head and later identified Broxton as the assailant.
Broxton was charged with capital murder in four other cases that occurred in April and May 1991. The inmate worked as a mechanic and was on parole for an aggravated robbery and attempted capital murder when his crime occurred in 1991. He has been at the Polunsky Unit since 1992.
George McFarland, 64, is a Black man convicted of the 1991 robbery and murder of Kenneth Kwan, the 43-year-old owner of C&Y Grocery Store in Houston. Kwan, accompanied by a security guard, had just returned to his store from the bank with a large amount of cash when he was approached by McFarland and an accomplice, according to prison records. When McFarland disarmed the security guard, Kwan ran inside the store where he was robbed and shot to death. The suspects got away with $27,000 in cash. A co-defendant isn’t listed on McFarland’s paperwork so it’s unclear if the accomplice was apprehended.
McFarland, a laborer with a high school education, had a prior conviction for aggravated robbery. He has been at the Polunsky Unit since 1992.
Gerald Eldridge, 61, is a Black man convicted in the shooting deaths of Cynthia Bogany, his former girlfriend, and her 9-year-old daughter Chirrisa Bogany. Eldridge broke into Bogany’s apartment and shot Chirrisa as she slept on a couch. After chasing Cynthia’s boyfriend from the apartment, Eldridge returned to the living room and shot his “natural 7-year-old son Terrell” in the shoulder, according to prison records. He then chased down Cynthia on a stairwell outside the apartment and shot her to death as she begged for her life. The crime occurred in 1993.
Eldridge, who had previous convictions for attempted murder with a deadly weapon and a parole violation, re-entered the TDCJ system in 1994. He was a laborer with a high school education.
Charles Raby, 55, is a white man who had worked as a sandblaster. He was convicted in the attempted rape and murder of 72-year-old Edna Mae Franklin. Franklin, the grandmother of Raby’s friend, was assaulted by Raby after he broke into her home, according to prison records. Raby stripped the woman of her undergarments, attempted to rape her and then stabbed her 15 times before slitting her throat.
Raby ransacked the house and fled. He confessed to the crime a few days later. The inmate previously did time for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. He was released on parole for the robbery charge in August 1992. The capital murder of Franklin occurred in October 1992. Raby has been in the TDCJ system since 1994.
Erica Sheppard, 51, is a Black woman with no prior criminal history and a high school education. Sheppard and a co-defendant were convicted of murdering a 43-year-old woman in her home in order to rob her of her car on June 30, 1993. Sheppard was 19 at the time of the offense.
Her co-defendant James R. Dickerson was also sentenced to death but died in custody in September 1999 due to complications from HIV and late-stage AIDS. Sheppard is currently housed at Patrick O’Daniel Unit in Gatesville, where she has been since 1995.
