Texas resident convicted of two murders is the first executed of the year in the US

Charles Victor Thompson, sentenced to death in Texas, USA. Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP A man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend in Texas was executed this Wednesday (28). He is the first person sentenced to death to be executed in the United States in 2025. 📱Download the g1 app to see news in real time and for free Charles Victor Thompson, aged 55, was declared dead at 6:50 pm local time (9:50 pm Brasília time). He was executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville state penitentiary. The crimes occurred in 1998, when he executed his ex-girlfriend, Glenda Dennise Hayslip, aged 39, and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, aged 30, in the woman’s apartment in the suburbs of Houston. See the trending videos on g1 See the videos that are trending on g1 Prosecutors said Thompson and Hayslip had a romantic relationship for a year, but ended it after Thompson “became increasingly possessive, jealous and abusive.” According to court records, Hayslip and Cain were dating when Thompson went to Hayslip’s apartment and began arguing with Cain around 3 a.m. on the date of the murders. Police were called and ordered Thompson to leave the apartment complex. He returned three hours later and shot Hayslip and Cain. Cain died at the scene, and Hayslip died a week later in the hospital. MORE About an hour before the scheduled 6 p.m. execution, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a brief order rejecting Thompson’s last appeal. On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had denied Thompson’s request to have his death sentence commuted to a lesser punishment. Thompson’s lawyers argued before the Supreme Court that he was not given the chance to dispute or confront the prosecution’s evidence that Hayslip died from a gunshot to the face. They maintained that, in fact, Hayslip died due to failures in the medical care he received after the shooting, which caused him severe brain damage due to lack of oxygen after a failed intubation. Prosecutors said a jury had already rejected that claim and ruled under state law that Thompson was responsible for Hayslip’s death because it “would not have occurred but for his conduct.” Hayslip’s family has filed a lawsuit against one of her doctors, alleging medical negligence during treatment that left her brain dead. In 2002, a jury ruled in favor of the doctor. Thompson’s original death sentence was overturned, and a new sentencing trial was held in November 2005. A jury again ruled that he be sentenced to death by lethal injection. Shortly after being resentenced, Thompson escaped from the Harris County Jail in Houston, walking out the front door virtually unchallenged by officers. He told the Associated Press that after meeting with his lawyer in a small interview room, he managed to free himself from his handcuffs and orange prison jumpsuit and left the room, which was unlocked. Thompson waved a makeshift badge made from his prison identification card to pass several officers. “I could smell the trees, the wind in my hair, the grass beneath my feet, see the stars at night. It took me straight back to my childhood, being outside on a summer night,” Thompson said of his time on the run, in an interview with the AP in 2005. He was arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, while trying to organize money transfers from abroad to get to Canada. Texas has historically carried out more executions than any other state, although the number has declined in recent years. The next execution in the US is scheduled for February 10, when a man convicted of killing a street vendor during a 1989 robbery in the Gainesville area is expected to die by lethal injection.

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