Execution Report: Charles Tuttle

Charles Daniel Tuttle, 35, was executed by lethal injection on 1 July 1999 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder and robbery of his former roommate.

In November 1994, Tuttle and his friend, David Landry, left the Beaumont area and moved to Tyler, where neither of them had a job or a place to stay. Landry contacted his aunt, Cathy Harris, who invited the two men to stay with her in her mobile home. According to Landry, he and Tuttle both found jobs around January 1995. He began giving Harris some money to help out with the bills, but to his knowledge, Tuttle never gave her any. He said that Tuttle spent his paycheck on "drinking, girls, and impressing people."

On Sunday, 19 February, Landry told Tuttle that he needed to start paying rent, or else Harris would ask him to move out on Monday. Tuttle indicated he had no problem with this and would move out on Monday.

When Monday came, Tuttle moved his belongings out of the trailer and began sleeping nearby in his truck. He came over on Tuesday morning, after Harris left for work, to eat and shower. Landry let Tuttle in, instructing him to lock up when he left. They did this every morning that week. When he came over on Friday, 24 February, Tuttle told Landry that he watched the film Natural Born Killers three times the previous day. The violent 1994 film is about a pair of serial killers who are glorified by the media. Landry told Harris that he needed to be out of the trailer by noon, because Harris normally came home from work early on Fridays. Tuttle normally called Landry when he left the trailer, but he did not call on Friday.

Landry returned home from work at around 11:45 p.m. He did not see Harris or her green Dodge Dakota pickup truck, and noticed some red spots on the living room carpet, but did not consider any of this as a cause for concern, and went to bed. When he awoke around 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning, he tried to find Harris to remind her that she had softball practice. He could not locate her and noticed that her pickup was still not outside. He looked around for a note from her explaining her absence to him, but could not find one. He then started making himself breakfast. When he looked in the refrigerator, he noticed there was no red Kool-Aid, red wine, or any other kind of red beverage. He reexamined the spots on the carpet and concluded that they smelled like blood. He then began searching the trailer and found Harris's body hidden in her closet, under a pile of blankets and clothing. He then called 9-1-1.

Investigators determined that Harris, 42, had been struck at least ten times on the head and face with a blunt object, including one blow square between her eyes. They discovered a claw hammer and bloody towel hidden behind the washer and dryer. The victim's purse and wallet, emptied of cash, were later discovered behind the stove along with a T-shirt belonging to Tuttle, which was spattered with the victim's blood. Some of jewelry and her handgun, a .357 Magnum revolver, were also missing.

At around 5:00 or 5:30 p.m. on Friday evening, Tuttle drove a green Dodge Dakota pickup to the home of Jerrell Goodson, a neighbor of Harris's. Tuttle sold his old Chevy S-10 pickup to Goodson for $50. He also sold Goodson a ring and pearl necklace, which Tuttle told Goodson belonged to his ex-wife, for $50.

Police arrested Tuttle, then 31, on 28 February, four days after the killing and 200 miles to the south, in a Beaumont hospital, where he was visiting his father. He had the victim's revolver in his waistband, two of her credit cards in his wallet, and her pickup keys in his pocket. He had used the cards to buy gasoline and alcohol. He took police to the pickup. It contained a pair of blood-stained boots. The DNA on the boots was later matched to the victim.

In his first statement, taken in Beaumont on the day of the arrest, Tuttle denied any memory of the murder, saying he had been drinking continuously since 17 February and had "black out spells." In his second statement, given the following day in Tyler, he admitted killing Harris with the hammer. He said he was high on methamphetamine at the time of the killing. He said he was desperate to get back to Beaumont, but didn't have any money, gas, or a working vehicle. He said he only wanted to knock the victim out "like you see on TV" and steal from her, and didn't intend to kill her. "She started screaming, and I lost it," he said. He cried and said that he deserved the death penalty.

Tuttle had a previous conviction for delivery of a controlled substance. He served 3 months of a three-year sentence in 1991. (At the time, early release was common in Texas due to strict prison population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.)

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