In Huntsville, Texas, a man who made headlines for his dramatic escape after a death sentence has been executed, marking the first execution in the U.S. this year. The individual, Charles Victor Thompson, aged 55, was put to death on Wednesday evening through a lethal injection at the Huntsville state penitentiary. Thompson was convicted for the 1998 murders of his former girlfriend, Glenda Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her new partner, Darren Keith Cain, 30, at her apartment near Houston.
Thompson and Hayslip’s relationship had lasted a year before it ended due to Thompson’s increasingly controlling and abusive behavior, as prosecutors described. Following the breakup, Hayslip began dating Cain, which led to the tragic events.
Court documents reveal that the night of the murders, Thompson arrived at Hayslip’s residence around 3 a.m., instigating a confrontation with Cain. Law enforcement was summoned, and Thompson was ordered to leave. However, he returned three hours later, fatally shooting both Hayslip and Cain.
Cain succumbed to his injuries at the scene, while Hayslip passed away in the hospital a week afterward.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office, in their court statements, highlighted the long-awaited justice for the victims’ families, stating that they had been waiting for over 25 years for this resolution.
“The Hayslip and Cain families have waited over twenty-five years for justice to occur,” prosecutors with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said in court filings.
About an hour before the scheduled 6 p.m. execution, the U.S. Supreme Court – without explanation – issued a brief order rejecting Thompson’s final appeal. On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had denied Thompson’s request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty.
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. Thompson’s attorneys argued 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.
Prosecutors had said a jury had already rejected the claim by Thompson and decided under state law he was responsible for Hayslip’s death because it “would not have occurred but for his conduct.”
Hayslip’s family had filed a lawsuit against one of her doctors, alleging that medical negligence during her treatment left her brain-dead. A jury in 2002 found in favor of the doctor.
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 being resentenced, Thompson escaped from the Harris County Jail in Houston by walking out the front door virtually unchallenged by deputies. He later told The Associated Press that after meeting with his attorney in a small interview cell, he slipped out of his handcuffs and orange jail jumpsuit and left the room, which was unlocked. Thompson waived an ID badge fashioned out of his prison ID card to get past several deputies.
“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,” Thompson said of his time on the run, speaking with AP in a 2005 interview. He was arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, while trying to arrange for wire transfers of money from overseas so he could make it to Canada.
Texas has historically held more executions than any other state though Florida had the most in 2025 with 19. The next execution in the U.S. is scheduled to be the Feb. 10 lethal injection of Ronald Palmer Health, who was convicted of killing a traveling salesman during a 1989 robbery in the Gainesville area.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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