Execution Report: Odell Barnes Jr.

Odell Barnes Jr., 31, was executed by lethal injection on 1 March 2000 in Huntsville, Texas, for the robbery, rape, and murder of a woman in her home.

In November 1989, Helen Bass, 44, was found dead in her house. She was naked, bloodied, and beaten. Her body was in her bedroom. She had been stabbed twice and struck in the head with a blunt object. The fatal wound was a .32-caliber gunshot to her head. A lamp with a dented and bloody base was also in the bedroom, along with a .22-caliber rifle that was broken in half. A blood-covered knife was found in the kitchen. Her bedroom was in disarray. Dresser drawers were opened and pulled out, the contents of two purses were dumped onto the bed, and a jewelry box had been opened. Personal papers belonging to Bass were found outside her home, near her chain-link fence.

The night before Bass's murder, at about 10:30 p.m., Roger Brooks, a neighbor, saw a man in Bass's yard. Brooks watched him attempt to jump Bass's wooden fence, but he fell. Brooks said that the man, who was wearing dark green or blue coveralls and a stocking cap, then jumped a chain-link fence on a different part of Bass's property.

Between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m., a witness, Patrick Williams, saw a man wearing coveralls and carrying a gun at an apartment complex near Bass's house. Later that afternoon, Deborah Ann Humphrey, having heard of Helen Bass's murder, turned a .32-caliber pistol over to police. She said that Odell Barnes had given the gun to her brother, Johnny Ray Humphrey, to sell. The serial number on the gun matched the receipt for a gun that Helen Bass's son had purchased for her in April 1988. A firearms expert matched the gun to the type that was used to kill Bass, but he could not confirm that the pistol was in fact the murder weapon because the fatal bullet was too damaged.

Police recovered some dark green coveralls from Joseph Barnes's car. Joseph told the officers that the coveralls belongs to his brother, Odell, 21. At trial, Joseph testified that Odell Barnes "wore them all the time." The coveralls had blood stains on them that matched Helen Bass's blood type.

The medical examiner testified that sperm was found on Bass, but the quantity was insufficient to identify the donor. A fingerprint expert testified that Barnes's fingerprint was found on the lamp found in Bass's bedroom.

Odell Barnes Jr. had eight prior felony convictions: five robberies, two rapes, and one burglary. He served less than three months of an 8-year prison sentence in 1987 before being released on "shock probation." He later served a year and a half of another 10-year sentence. (At the time, early release was common in Texas due to strict prison population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.)

Continued on Page 2