Execution Report: David Hicks

David Hicks, 38, was executed by lethal injection on 20 January 2000 in Huntsville, Texas, for the rape and murder of his grandmother.

One evening in April 1988, Hicks, then 26, and his cousin, Lester Busby, visited their grandmother, Ocolor Hegger, 88, in her home. On their way in, they saw and talked to another cousin, Eddie Branch, who was just leaving after his visit with Hegger. After Hicks and Busby left, they want to a neighbor's house and drank beer for awhile. They then went back to Busby's house, which was next door to Hegger's. At about 9:30 p.m., Hicks left Busby's house and told Busby that he was going home.

The next morning, Ocolor Hegger's body was found in her home. She had been raped, and she died from eight to ten blows to the head and neck with a blunt instrument. She also had one superficial stab wound to the neck and had numerous abrasions and contusions on her body.

Police searched Hegger's house. Family members noticed that a hammer, which they commonly knew hung inside a kitchen cabinet, was missing. Police searched the area, including Busby's yard, but did not find the hammer. Two weeks later, Busby found a bloody hammer in his yard. Both he and the police later testified that they were positive the hammer was not in Busby's yard on the day of the search.

The murder remained unsolved until August 1988, when David Hicks was arrested on an outstanding misdeamenor warrant for theft. Blood was found on clothing taken from his car. A DNA sample was taken, and it matched the semen found in the victim's body.

At Hicks's trial, a jail inmate testified that Hicks told him he killed his grandmother, and that he used a knife, which was not common knowledge at the time.

Hicks had a prior prison record consisting of a 3-year sentence for aggravated assault and a 10-year sentence for burglary, kidnapping, and fleeing a police officer. He served nine months for the former offense from 1982 to 1983. He began serving the 10-year sentence in May 1986 and was paroled in August 1987. (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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