A former boyfriend’s jealous fury culminated in a tragic double murder, and his disturbing final words echoed as he faced execution. Charles Victor Thompson, aged 55, was put to death by lethal injection at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville on Wednesday evening, precisely at 6:50 p.m. CST.

This marked the first execution in the United States for the year 2026. Thompson was sentenced in 1999 for the cold-blooded murders of Dennise Hayslip, 39, and Darren Cain, 30, which occurred at Hayslip’s residence in northern Harris County the previous year.

In addition to the brutal crime, Thompson gained notoriety for a brief escape from the Harris County Jail in 2005. After spending 26 years on death row, he faced his final judgment, having made several unsuccessful attempts to escape his sentence.

Thompson was convicted in 1999 for the slaying of Dennise Hayslip, 39, and Darren Cain, 30, at her north Harris County home a year prior.

Aside from the heinous killings, he was known for briefly pulling off an escape from the Harris County Jail in 2005. 

He sat on death row for 26 years before meeting his fate and unsuccessfully tried to dodge the ultimate punishment several times. 

‘There are no winners in this situation,’ he told witnesses after a spiritual advisor prayed over him for roughly three minutes – moments before he was administered a deadly dose of pentobarbital. 

Thompson added that his execution ‘creates more victims and traumatizes more people 28 years later.’

‘I’m sorry for what I did. I’m sorry for what happened, and I want to tell all of y’all, I love you and that keep Jesus in your life, keep Jesus first,’ he eerily added. 

Charles Victor Thompson had been on death row for more than two decades before he was executed on Wednesday

Dennise Hayslip, right , and Darren Cain, left, were murdered in April 1998

He gasped loudly for air as the nervous system depressant took effect then took roughly a dozen breaths that evolved into three snores.

The killer was pronounced dead 22 minutes after all movement ceased.  

‘He’s in Hell,’ Cain’s father, Dennis Cain, bluntly said after witnessing his son’s murderer perish. 

Thompson and Hayslip were romantically involved for more than a year before the relationship nosedived into chaos, according to prosecutors. 

Thompson ‘became increasingly possessive, jealous and abusive’ and Hayslip left him after prolonged suffering,’ according to court records. 

Hayslip and Cain were dating when Thompson busted into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment at around 3 am on the doomed April day that they were killed in 1998. 

Cops were called to remove the agitated intruder from the residence, but he returned three hours later and fatally shot them both.

Cain died on the scene, while Hawslip passed away in the hospital a week later.

On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency – one of Thompson’s last chances at dodging capital punishment. 

Thompson was escorted from court in 2005 after he escaped from jail 

Dennise Hayslip is seen above with her son Wade when he was young

Thompson’s plea to postpone the execution or be completely relieved of the fatal sentence was denied by the Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday. 

About an hour before he was executed, the US Supreme Court issued a brief order rejecting Thompson’s final appeal for a lesser sentence.

Thompson´s attorneys had argued in filings with the Supreme Court that he was not allowed to refute or confront the prosecution´s evidence that concluded Hayslip died from a gunshot wound to the face.   

They claimed that Hayslip actually died from flawed medical care she received after the shooting that resulted in severe brain damage sustained from oxygen deprivation following a failed intubation.   

But the jury had decided under state law he was responsible for Hayslip’s death because it ‘would not have occurred but for his conduct.’

Hayslip’s family sued one of her doctors, alleging that medical negligence during her treatment left her brain-dead. But a jury ruled in favor of the doctor in 2002. 

Thompson had his original death sentence overturned and a new punishment trial was held in November 2005. A jury again ordered him to die by lethal injection.

Shortly after his re-sentencing, Thompson infamously escaped from the Harris County Jail in Houston by strolling out the front door without deputy intervention. 

Thompson is pictured speaking to The Associated Press about how he brazenly escaped jail 

Dennise Hayslip is seen with her ex-husband Felix Hayslip and their son Wade before they divorced

He had sneakily slipped out of his orange jail jumpsuit after a meeting with his lawyer in a tiny cell, he later confessed to The Associated Press. 

Thompson left the unlocked room and flashed a fake ID badge he made from his prison ID card to get past the guards. 

He was later arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, while trying to wire transfer money from overseas to flee to Canada.  

‘I got to smell the trees, feel the wind in my hair, grass under my feet, see the stars at night. It took me straight back to childhood being outside on a summer night,’ he recalled from his brief stint of freedom in 2005. 

The gut-wrenching nature of Thompson’s actions, combined with his shocking jail escape, resulted in him being the subject of a 2018 episode of the ‘I Am A Killer’ docuseries. 

A Facebook group titled ‘Friends of Charles Victor Thompson’ had been fiercely advocating on his behalf, slamming the death penalty as inhumane.

‘We have been denied by the Supreme Court. I have no words. The execution will go ahead. My heart is broken,’ one member wrote shortly before the execution. 

However, Thompson’s death signified the end of a horrifying era for the loved ones of the victims.   

Thompson is pictured above smiling from jail, as shared on a social media account in support of getting him off of death row

Thompson died by lethal injection. A gurney used to carry out the penalty is seen above 

‘The Hayslip and Cain families have waited over 25 years for justice to occur,’ prosecutors wrote in court filings.

‘It’s more of the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one,’ Wade Hayslip, Hayslip’s grieving son, told USA Today before the execution. 

‘I’m looking forward to the new one.’  

Wade trekked from Chicago to Houston to witness Thompson’s death, claiming his life is ‘the only thing he has left to offer in accountability for the lives he’s destroyed.’ 

Texas has historically held more executions than any other state, though Florida had the most in 2025 with 19. 

Ronald Heath, who was convicted of killing a traveling salesman during a 1989 robbery in Gainesville, Florida, is the next person scheduled to be executed in the US this year. He is set to die by lethal injection on February 10. 

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there are 18 executions scheduled for this year.