Execution Report: Coy Wesbrook

Coy Wayne Wesbrook, 58, was executed by lethal injection on 9 March 2016 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of his ex-wife and four other people in her home.

On Thursday, 13 November 1997, residents of an apartment complex in Channelview, on the east side of Houston, began calling 9-1-1 around 2:00 a.m. to report gunshots. Witnesses reported hearing five gunshots during a span of about forty seconds. Witnesses also saw a man standing by the tailgate of his pickup truck in the apartment parking lot. They described the man as calm and said he was making statements such as "I did it" and "I did what I had to do."

Deputies arrived to find Wesbrook, then 39, patiently waiting for them by his pickup. Nearby on the ground was the body of Anthony Rogers, 41. When deputies asked who was in the apartment, he answered, "My ex-wife. That's who I came here to get." He complied with officers' instructions as he was arrested.

Deputies found three people in the living room of one of the apartments. Antonio Cruz, 35, and Ruth Money, 43, were dead. Another man, Kelly Hazlip, 32, was laying on the floor, still alive. Stepping into the bedroom, they found Gloria Coons, 32, also still alive. All of the victims had been shot once at close range in the head, chest, or abdomen. Coons died shortly after emergency personnel arrived. Hazlip died five days later.

The keys to Wesbrook's pickup truck were later recovered from Cruz's pants pockets.

At his trial, Wesbrook testified that he and Gloria Coons were married from 1995 to 1996. After their divorce, they continued to see each other and lived together for a time. He moved out of the apartment they shared in August 1997.

According to Wesbrook, he and Coons had lunch on 12 November 1997, and she indicated that she was interested in reconciling with him. He went to her apartment that evening, hoping that she would be alone. Instead, her roommate, Ruth Money, was also present, along with two men - Anthony Rogers, and Kelly Hazlip. It was apparent to him that all had been drinking heavily. He agreed to sit down and drink with the group, even though he was uncomfortable with the situation. Antonio Cruz arrived a short time later.

Wesbrook testified that he felt humiliated when his ex-wife flashed her breasts to the group. She then took Hazlip into her bedroom. After a few minutes, Rogers joined them. A short time later, Coons and Rogers emerged. Rogers's pants were unzipped. Coons announced that she had just performed oral sex on him, and she was about to have sex with Hazlip, who was still in the bedroom. Wesbrook decided to leave at this point, but Cruz followed him outside and grabbed his pickup truck keys from him. Wesbrook then grabbed his .36-caliber hunting rifle from his truck and followed Cruz back into the apartment to get his keys.

Wesbrook testified that once he was back inside the apartment, the others verbally harassed, threatened, and physically abused him. He said that when Money threw a beer at him, the rifle "went off." Cruz and Rogers then rushed toward him, and he shot both of them. He then walked into the bedroom, where Coons and Hazlip were still having sex, and shot both of them. He then went outside, announced that he had committed the crime, and waited for the police.

Wesbrook told the jury that he just "lost it" and had no intention of killing anyone. He added that he was under stress for having recently learned that his first wife's new husband had sexually molested his nine-year-old daughter. A psychologist testified for the defense that Wesbrook was "very much at the end of his rope" at the time of the murders.

Wesbrook did not have a criminal record. At his punishment hearing, the state presented evidence that he had previously cut Coons's telephone line, threatened to burn the home of his first wife, Brenda Williams, attempted to burn the home of his ex-landords after they evicted him, and threatened Coons and her friends with a gun.

Phillip Jones, one of Wesbrook's fellow inmates at the Harris County jail, testified that Wesbrook repeatedly talked about wanting to have Williams and her husband killed. At one point, Jones notified the police. He agreed to arrange a telephone meeting between Wesbrook and Gary Johnson, an undercover officer posing as a hit man who owed Jones a favor. At Wesbrook's punishment hearing, Johnson presented audio recordings of Wesbrook discussing wanting to have five people killed: Williams, her husband, a witness who testified at his trial, that man's wife, and a woman who lived in Coons's apartment complex. On a subsequent call, Wesbrook told Johnson he wanted to call off the hits because he believed his phone calls were being taped.

Wesbrook's father testified that his son had learning difficulties and dropped out of school in the eighth grade, on the advice of the principal.

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