Stephen Moody

Christopher Bernard Coleman, 37, was executed by lethal injection on 22 September 2009 in Huntsville, Texas for the drug-related murder for hire of three people.

At around 2 a.m. on 14 December 1995, Coleman, then 25, Enrique Mosquera, 30, and Derrick Graham, 26, drove to the end of a dead-end street in Houston and stopped. Soon after, another car arrived and parked behind them. The second car had four occupants: the driver, Jose Garcia-Castro; his girlfriend, Elsie Prado; her brother, Heimar Hurtado; and Prado's three-year-old son, Danny Giraldo. Coleman, Mosquera, and Graham then approached the second vehicle. One of the men spoke to the occupants of vehicle, then began shooting into the car. He fired eleven shots, killing Garcia-Castro, Hurtado, and little Danny. Prado, who survived, told police that she got a good look at the shooter and would never forget his face.

Prado picked Coleman's picture from a photo spread nine days after the shooting. On 29 December, Coleman was arrested in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. Officers investigating the murders flew to Tennessee and questioned him. Coleman admitted to being at the scene of the crime, but he denied firing the shots.

Trial testimony indicated that Enrique Mosquera owed Heimar Hurtado $80,000 for four kilos of cocaine. The victims met that night believing that Mosquera came to pay off his debt. Instead, Mosquera hired Coleman and Graham to stage a robbery and make it look like Mosquera was a victim. Coleman and Graham were reportedly paid $12,000 and $10,000, respectively.

Coleman had a prior conviction for assault, for which he served 60 days in the Harris County jail.

A jury found Coleman guilty of capital murder in June 1997 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in May 1999. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Enrique Mosquera was also tried for capital murder, but the jury could not agree on giving him the death sentence, so he automatically received a life sentence. Derrick Graham also received a life sentence.

As Coleman's execution drew near, his appeals lawyers tried to get the execution stopped by bringing forward evidence that the state's witness, Elsie Prado, and Coleman's co-defendant, Enrique Mosquera, had known each other in Colombia. They claimed that Prado's Colombian relatives could have been endangered if she had named Mosquera as the triggerman instead of Coleman. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected this appeal on the grounds that Coleman could have been convicted and sentenced to death without Prado's testimony. Under Texas law, a capital murder defendant can be found guilty for participating in a murder, even if he or she does not directly cause a victim's death.

"I don't think anybody can say who shot whom," said Coleman's attorney, Patrick McCann. Coleman declined to be interview by reporters while on death row.

Aside from a few reporters, no witnesses attended Coleman's execution. For his last statement, Coleman said, "Ain't no way, fo fo. I love all y'all." The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:22 p.m.