Tommie Hughes

Tommie Collins Hughes, 31, was executed by lethal injection on 15 March 2006 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of two women during a robbery.

On 13 August 1997, Hughes, then 22, and Derric English, 19, approached two women in the parking lot of a Dallas theater. The women, Foluke Erinkitola, 25 and Roxanne Mendoza, 29 were walking to their car when Hughes shot and killed them with an automatic pistol. Hughes and English then took the women's purses, wallets, jewelry, cell phones, and pagers. They then left in a car driven by Hughes' girlfriend, Alicia Henry, 19.

The trio was caught after a short chase by police officers who were in the parking lot conducting an unrelated undercover operation. Police recovered the murder weapon and stolen items from the car. Hughes had blood on his clothing at the time of his arrest.

At the trial, Hughes' cousin testified that the day after the shooting, Hughes said that he killed the women because they could have identified him.

Hughes had a lengthy record of violence. After a court-martial, he received a bad-conduct discharge from the U.S. Marine Corps. In April 1994 and May 1995, Hughes was arrested for abusing his wife. He was arrested again in January 1997 over a domestic disturbance incident involving his girlfriend. He was also charged with resisting arrest in that incident. In March 1997, he attacked a sheriff's deputy after being arrested for driving while intoxicated. He was arrested on another domestic disturbance charge in June 1997.

Prosecutors also presented evidence that Hughes had robbed three other people at gunpoint in the same parking lot four days before the double homicide. In addition, Hughes was indicted for the January 1996 robbery and murder of convenience store owner Jaffar Ali.

A jury convicted Hughes in May 1998 of the capital murder of Foluke Erinkitola, and sentenced him to death. He was also charged, but not tried, for Roxanne Mendoza's murder. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in April 2000. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Derric Dewayne English was convicted of capital murder and given a life sentence. Alicia Lavone Henry pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery in exchange for her testimony against both men. She was sentenced to eleven years in prison.

In an interview from death row, Hughes admitted being there when the women were killed, but denied that he killed them or planned the robbery. He said that he was talking to the women in the parking lot when Henry flew into a jealous rage and shot them. "The picture that they painted of me as being the mastermind, it's just totally off the rock," Hughes said. "There's no way I can understand the loss their families feel. But I'm not the one who did it."

Hughes expressed love to his family in this last statement at his execution. He looked at, but did not speak to, the relatives of his victims. The lethal injection was started, and he was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m.