US first execution this year was carried out on Wednesday as Texas executed a death row inmate convicted of killing his former girlfriend and her partner more than two decades ago. Charles Victor Thompson, 55, was put to death by lethal injection at the Huntsville state penitentiary.
Thompson was pronounced dead at 6:50 pm CST, becoming the first person executed in the United States this year, according to the Associated Press. He had been sentenced to death for the 1998 fatal shooting of Glenda Dennise Hayslip, 39, and Darren Keith Cain, 30, at Hayslip’s apartment in a Houston suburb.
Court records show that Hayslip and Cain were dating when Thompson arrived at the apartment around 3 am. A confrontation broke out between Thompson and Cain, prompting police to respond. Officers instructed Thompson to leave the premises. About three hours later, he returned and shot both victims. Cain died at the scene, while Hayslip succumbed to her injuries a week later in hospital.
In his final statement, Thompson asked the victims’ families to forgive him and said there were “no winners” in the situation. After a brief prayer led by a spiritual adviser, he said the execution would “create more victims and traumatise more people” even decades after the crime.
“I’m sorry for what I did. I’m sorry for what happened,” Thompson said, urging those present to keep faith at the centre of their lives. As the lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered, witnesses reported that Thompson gasped and took several breaths before becoming still. He was pronounced dead 22 minutes later.
A witness to the execution, Dennis Cain the father of victim Darren Cain reacted strongly, saying, “He’s in hell,” after a physician confirmed Thompson’s death. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said the case had finally reached its conclusion. “This chapter is closed. It was justice a long time coming,” he said.
About an hour before the execution, the US Supreme Court rejected Thompson’s final appeal without comment. Earlier in the week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles had denied his request for a commutation of sentence.
Thompson’s lawyers had argued that he was denied the opportunity to challenge medical evidence related to Hayslip’s death, claiming she died due to inadequate medical care following the shooting. Prosecutors countered that a jury had already rejected those arguments and said Thompson was legally responsible, as her death would not have occurred without his actions. A civil lawsuit filed by Hayslip’s family against one of her doctors was dismissed by a jury in 2002.
Thompson’s original death sentence was overturned, leading to a new punishment trial in November 2005, after which he was again sentenced to death. Shortly after being resentenced, he escaped from the Harris County Jail, walking out of the facility with minimal resistance. He was captured three days later in Shreveport, Louisiana, while attempting to arrange overseas money transfers to flee to Canada.
Texas has historically carried out the highest number of executions in the United States. However, Florida led the nation in 2025, with 19 executions. The next execution in the US is scheduled for February 10, when Ronald Palmer Heath is set to be executed in Florida for a 1989 murder during a robbery.