Execution Report: Kosoul Chanthakoummane

Kosoul Chanthakoummane, 41, was executed by lethal injection on 17 August 2022 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder and robbery of a 40-year-old woman in a house.

On Saturday, 8 July 2006 at approximately 1:10 p.m., Andy Lilliston and his wife entered a model home in McKinney, a suburb of Dallas. Lilliston noticed that the house had been ransacked. He found a large pool of blood in the dining room, where the sales desk was located. He followed a trail of blood into the kitchen, where he saw a woman's body lying face-up on the floor. The upper half of her body was covered in blood. Lilliston and his wife called 9-1-1, exited the home, and flagged down a vehicle for help. Lilliston then went back inside to check the body for signs of life. Finding none, he returned outside to wait for emergency personnel to arrive.

Texas Ranger A. P. Davidson noticed signs of a struggle; namely, furniture crooked and out of place and a potted plant in a stand that fell over or was knocked over. He found a pair of women's shoes, a broken hair clip, and a broken earring on the floor. The victim, Sarah Walker, a real estate agent, had multiple stab wounds. Her long skirt was rolled up to her waistline. Based on the position of the skirt and the trail of blood, Davidson theorized that Walker had been dragged by her feet from the dining room to the kitchen.

McKinney police officer Pete Copin found an incomplete bloody fingerprint on the deadbolt lock on the front door. He found more blood on the potted plant stand, the pull cord for the front window blinds, and the wall section between the window and the front door. It also appeared to Copin as though there was diluted blood residue in the kitchen sink.

Collin County Medical Examiner William Rohr testified that Walker sustained several blunt force injuries to her face and head, including a broken nose and fractured teeth, that were consistent with being struck multiple times with the plant stand. She also suffered a total of 33 stab wounds, including ten that penetrated vital organs and blood vessels, any of which could have been "pretty much immediately fatal." She also had a bite mark on the back of her neck that Rohr opined was inflicted "at or near her death." She also had some defensive wounds, including a broken fingernail.

Walker's ex-husband, Randy Tate, testified that he picked up their son at Walker's home in Frisco that morning. At that time, Walker showed him a new Rolex watch that she had purchased the previous day. A box and receipt for a Rolex watch were found in a search of Walker's home after her death. Surveillance video taken from a bank in Frisco shortly afterward showed Walker wearing a watch and a ring.

Another real estate agent, Mamie Sharpless, testified that she arrived to show a town house in McKinney between 11:30 a.m. and noon. While she and her husband sat in their car, waiting for her buyer, they saw a white Ford Mustang drive by and park across from a model home down the street. They observed the driver get out of the car and start to cross the street. They drove up to him and asked him whether he was the buyer she was waiting for, and he said no. Sharpless identified Chanthakoummane in court as the man she saw.

Sharpless and her husband, Nelson Villavicencio, then drove to the end of the block, turned around, and drove back to the town house to await her showing. The Mustang was not there when they passed by. While his wife showed the town house, Villavicencio looked out the window. He saw Walker arrive at the model home in her Porsche, park it across the street, and go inside. The white Mustang was now back and was parked in front of the model home. Sharpless finished her showing between 12:30 and 1:00 p.m., and she and Villavicencio left the subdivision.

Walker's cousin, Jessica Allen, testified that Walker called her around 12:30. They talked for about fifteen minutes, then Walker said someone had walked in, and she would call back. Andy Lilliston discovered her body about a half hour later. She was not wearing the watch or ring that she had been shown wearing earlier on the bank surveillance video. The watch was never found.

Sharpless and Villavicencio's description of the suspect resembled Chanthakoummane, who had been involved in an incident with another female real estate agent the night before Walker's murder. The agent testified that Chanthakoummane, who she had previously helped find an apartment, came to her home and repeatedly banged on her doors, asking to use her phone, saying his car broke down. She called the police when he refused to leave.

A DNA analysis was performed on the blood evidence from the crime scene and on scrapings taken from Walker's fingernails. After receiving the results, police arrested Chanthakoummane, then 25, at his apartment on 5 September.

Officer Randall Norton interviewed Chanthakoummane at the McKinney police station. At first, he denied ever being in McKinney in his white Mustang. Upon further questioning, he stated that his car had broken down in front of a model home, that he knocked on the door and received no answer, and took "like three or four steps" inside to see if anyone was there. He then spoke to a man and woman in a car. He then went into the kitchen for a drink of water, but "didn't know how to use the faucet because the hot water came out," so he left. He stated that he had "old cuts" on his hands from work, and it was possible that he bled from them while he was inside the model home.

Ranger Davidson testified that Chanthakoummane owned a white Ford Mustang and his bank account was overdrawn by $82.27 on the day before Walker's murder.

Additional facts laid out in court documents about Chanthakoummane's case imply that he was the same individual who phoned Mamie Sharpless about a town house showing on the morning of Walker's murder.

Forensic dentistry consultant Brent Hutson testified that he examined impressions he made of Chanthakoummane's teeth and compared them with the bite marks on Walker's neck. He concluded "within reasonable dental certainty beyond a doubt" that Chanthakoummane left the mark.

Chanthakoummane's defense attorney, Keith Gore, told jurors "he wanted to rob (Walker), and it didn't go the right way, and he killed her."

Chanthakoummane had previously served time in prison in North Carolina for aggravated kidnapping and robbery. He was on parole at the time of Walker's murder.

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