Star football player turned serial killer Garcia Glenn White is scheduled to be executed this week in Texas for the murders of his 16-year-old identical twin sisters, making him the sixth executioner in the nation in the past 10 days. It will be executed.
But White’s lawyers argue that mental deficiencies combined with long-term crack cocaine use are more to blame than White, and those who know White say he is more to blame than White, who has suffered from a football injury, lost his job, etc. , describes him as a gentle giant whose life was turned upside down by subsequent injuries. Drug addiction.
“Glenn was the kindest person I knew,” a friend named Ray Manuel wrote of White, according to court records obtained by USA TODAY. “Glenn cried easily,” his sister Monica Garrett wrote. And his brother Alfred White Jr. said, “He was the biggest wimp you could ever find.”
The white man they say killed five people, including Houston mother Bonita Edwards and identical twin daughters Annette and Barnett Edwards, just one day after her 16th birthday and weeks before Christmas. Similar to the white man who confessed that. In 1989.
According to court records, the Edwards’ bodies were found in various states of undress and had stab wounds, providing strong evidence that Barnett had been sexually assaulted. Their murders remained unsolved for six years.
“The murder of five people, including two teenage girls, in three separate transactions is too genocidal to ignore and is the type of case for which the death penalty is warranted,” Harris County Prosecutor’s Office said. Josh Reese told USA TODAY.
As White’s execution approaches on Tuesday, USA TODAY is looking back at the 35-year-old crime and how it led a once-promising man to a path lined with crack cocaine and blood.
What was Garcia Glenn White convicted of?
In total, White confessed to killing five people in three separate attacks. The first was 27-year-old Greta Williams, who was beaten to death in 1989 just months after moving from Chicago to Houston for a new start. About a month later, the Edwards family arrived. Then, in 1995, White bludgeoned Hai Pham, a convenience store employee and father of seven, to death. Pham had just immigrated to the United States from Vietnam with her family nine months ago and had big dreams for her children, her son told USA TODAY.
Of all the murders, prosecutors pursued only Edwards’ case, and White was convicted of murdering Annette and Barnett.
While White was under arrest for Pham’s murder, one of White’s close friends told police that White had admitted to killing the Edwards family. In addition to Mr. White’s final confession, his DNA was a 99.9999% match to Mr. Barnett’s semen. Barnett had a pink shirt tied around the back of her neck and a gag over her mouth, court records show.
Among all the disturbing details at the crime scene, a bloody sock was discovered under the Christmas tree.
A subsequent investigation revealed that White and Bonita Edwards were using crack cocaine while their daughters were in their bedroom. White told police he started fighting with Edwards.
“She reached for the knife and I grabbed the knife and stabbed her,” he said, according to court records. “Some of the kids came out and I followed them into the bedroom. … I stabbed one person in the bedroom and one person in the living room.”
USA TODAY is seeking comment from White’s attorney.
Who is Garcia Glenn White?
White, 61, was one of seven children raised in a loving home, according to court records.
Although he was a poor student, he was an excellent football player and eventually won a scholarship to play at Lubbock Christian College, but an injury destroyed his knee and cut short his athletic career. I did. His girlfriend became pregnant and he dropped out of college, according to court records.
Court records say White held down work for a while to support his girlfriend and three children, but another serious injury derailed his career. A friend named Howard Gordon said he watched White go into a downward spiral when he turned to the escape that drugs provided after he was injured at work.
“There was no structure to his life,” Gordon said. “I saw him change, and when I looked at the guys he was with, I thought this wasn’t going to get me anywhere.”
Another friend, Ray Manuel, said he was nearby while White was using.
“I told Glenn that I didn’t want him to be a negative influence on my daughter and that he would have to make a choice,” Manuel said. “He chose drugs and we broke up.”
After White’s crimes were revealed, Gordon said he was in disbelief. “There was nothing in him to do that until he became addicted to drugs.”
After White was imprisoned for a time, he and Gordon began corresponding. Gordon observed, “He’s back to being the kind man I knew before he did drugs.”
Garcia Glenn White says he doesn’t deserve to die
White’s lawyers had won a suspended sentence for him on January 28, 2015, the day before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals handed down the suspended sentence after White’s lawyers argued that new scientific evidence made the case clearer. The effects of cocaine use on the brain.
Now that White’s execution is scheduled again, his lawyers continue to argue that police exploited White’s mental deficiencies to extract a confession without a lawyer present. They also allege that prosecutors worked to exclude black jurors to improve the odds.
Judges and courts have rejected all of his recent appeals, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has refused to hold a clemency hearing for him, and the state of Texas was released on Tuesday without intervention from the courts or Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. This paved the way for his execution.
Family members of two of White’s victims interviewed by USA TODAY said they were present at the execution, witnessed the death and hoped for closure. Among them is Dewanta Washington, whose sister White confessed to the violent death.
Washington stated, “Until he is executed, until he pays off his debt, my sister will not be truly free.”
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Garcia Glenn White. He is listed in jail and court records as Garcia Glenn White, but his attorney says that’s incorrect, and USA TODAY reported that White wrote a handwritten letter in which he spelled his name Glenn. I got it.