Texas executes Charles Victor Thompson, first death by lethal injection in 2026

A Texas man convicted of fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend was executed Wednesday, becoming the first person executed in the United States in 2026. Charles Victor Thompson, 55, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. CST, according to an Associated Press report.

Thompson was condemned for the April 1998 killings of Glenda Dennise Hayslip, 39, and Darren Keith Cain, 30, at Hayslip’s suburban Houston apartment. In his final words, Thompson asked the families of his victims to forgive him, saying “that you can begin to heal and move past this,” and he also told them, “There are no winners in this situation.”

After spiritual adviser prayed over him for about three minutes, Thompson spoke shortly before a lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered. He said, “He said his execution creates more victims and traumatizes more people 28 years later,” and added, “I’m sorry for what I did. I’m sorry for what happened, and I want to tell all of y’all, I love you and that keep Jesus in your life, keep Jesus first,” AP reported.

As the injection began taking effect, Thompson gasped loudly, then took about a dozen breaths that changed into three snores before all movement stopped. A physician declared him dead 22 minutes later, AP said. Dennis Cain, whose son was killed in the case, told reporters after Thompson was declared dead by a physician, “He’s in hell.”

The prosecution framed the execution as the conclusion of the case. Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, whose office prosecuted the matter, said after watching Thompson die that “This chapter is closed,” and that it was “justice a long time coming,” AP reported.

Court records described how the killings unfolded: Hayslip and Cain were dating when Thompson came to Hayslip’s apartment and argued with Cain around 3 a.m. on the night of the killings. Police were called and told Thompson to leave the apartment complex, but AP reported that Thompson returned about three hours later and shot both Hayslip and Cain; Cain died at the scene, and Hayslip died in a hospital a week later.

Legal challenges in Thompson’s final days included arguments about the medical cause of Hayslip’s death. About an hour before the scheduled 6 p.m. execution, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Thompson’s final appeal without explanation. On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied his request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty, AP reported.

Thompson’s attorneys had told the Supreme Court that he was not allowed to refute or confront the prosecution’s evidence concluding Hayslip died from a gunshot wound to the face. They argued instead that Hayslip actually died from flawed medical care she received after the shooting, which resulted in severe brain damage following oxygen deprivation after a failed intubation, the report said. Prosecutors said a jury had already rejected the claim and determined under state law that Hayslip’s death “would not have occurred but for his conduct.”

The reporting described that Hayslip’s family sued one of her doctors, alleging medical negligence during treatment left her brain-dead, and that a jury in 2002 found for the doctor. Thompson’s death sentence was later overturned and he faced a new punishment trial in November 2005, when a jury again ordered him to die by lethal injection.

Thompson also previously escaped custody shortly after being resentenced. AP reported that he escaped from the Harris County Jail in Houston by walking out the front door while deputies did not challenge him, later telling AP in a 2005 interview that he slipped out of handcuffs and an orange jail jumpsuit after meeting with his attorney in a small interview cell. Thompson was arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, after AP reported he tried to arrange wire transfers of money from overseas so he could make it to Canada.

Texas has historically conducted the most executions among U.S. states. AP reported that the next scheduled execution in the United States is Feb. 10 lethal injection of Ronald Palmer Health, convicted of killing a traveling salesman during a 1989 robbery in the Gainesville area of Florida.