Execution: Willie Pondexter
David Carson
March 2009 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a woman during a
home invasion robbery.
On the night of 28 October 1993, Pondexter, then 19, Ricky Bell, James
Bell, and Deon Williams met together and discussed robbing Martha
Lennox, a wealthy 84-year-old woman in Clarksville, which is about 50
miles west of Texarkana. Later that night, they were joined by James
Henderson, 20. Pondexter borrowed a car, and the men went out to buy
beer and go to a club. They again discussed robbing "the old lady" and
discussed which one of them "had the heart" to do what they planned to
do to her. On the way to Lennox's house, they stopped at a store and
discussed robbing a man who was getting gas there. Again, they
questioned which one of them "had the heart" to do it. Henderson and
Williams then got out of the car, but the group left without doing any
harm to the man. The group then continued to Lennox's house.
They parked a few blocks away. On their first attempt to enter the
house, they saw a patrolling police car. Four of the five ran back to
their car, but James Bell ran in a different direction and was not
seen again by the others that night. Pondexter, Henderson, Williams,
and Ricky Bell then returned to Lennox's house. After Pondexter kicked
in the front door, all four of them went inside and went upstairs to
Lennox's bedroom. The victim was there, sitting on her bed. Williams
then took $7 from the victim's coin purse. Lennox was then shot twice
in the head with a 9 mm pistol. The intruders then fled in the
victim's car.
Pondexter and his companions drove Lennox's car to Dallas, using the
money they stole to buy gas. The day after the murder, they were
arrested after attempting to rob a man on the street.
At Pondexter's trial, Deon Williams testified that Henderson shot
Lennox in the head first, then handed the gun to Pondexter. Pondexter
then shot Lennox in the head and said, "that's how you smoke a bitch."
The prosecution then called another witness, Michael Kendricks, who
was in jail with Pondexter on unrelated charges. Kendricks testified
that Pondexter told him he shot Lennox in the jaw after she was
already dead.
The medical examiner, Dr. Guileyardo, testified that the victim was
shot twice in the head. One bullet entered the left side of her face
and exited below her right ear, shattering her right jawbone. The
other bullet entered her forehead, traveled through her brain, and
exited at the back of her head. Guileyardo testified that both wounds
were inflicted while the victim was alive, and either could have
killed her.
Pondexter's defense was twofold. First, his lawyers claimed that
Pondexter did not shoot the victim at all. Second, they stated that if
Henderson shot the victim in the head first as Williams testified,
then she would have already been dead when Pondexter shot her.
Under Texas law, a jury can find a defendant guilty of capital murder
if it believes he bears responsibility for the victim's death, even if
he does not inflict the fatal wound. The state did not rely on this
"law of parties", either in its prosecution of Pondexter or its
instructions to the jury, however.
Pondexter had a prior conviction in Oklahoma for unauthorized use of a
motor vehicle. He served two years of a seven-year sentence before
receiving parole in 1992. In May 1993, Pondexter committed assault and
battery with a dangerous weapon in Oklahoma and was sentenced to 12
years of probation. His probation status was revoked in October 1993,
shortly before Lennox's murder, for failure to report and pay the
required fees. Further testimony at Pondexter's punishment hearing
indicated that he had committed numerous assaults, batteries, and
robberies with weapons in 1993.
A jury convicted Pondexter of capital murder in July 1994 and
sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed
the conviction and sentence in October 1996.
In a subsequent appeal in state court, Pondexter presented a
pathologist, Dr. Bolesta, who distinguished the two bullet wounds.
Bolesta stated that whereas the shot to the victim's brain was
"universally fatal", the shot to her face - which he said was the
second shot fired - was only "potentially fatal". In response, Dr.
Guileyardo testified that either of the wounds could have caused the
victim's death, and she most likely died from a combination of the two
wounds. While Guileyardo said it could not be determined which wound
was inflicted first, he did state that the presence of blood in the
victim's mouth and throat indicated that her heart was still beating
when she was shot in the face. And, while he agreed with Dr. Bolesta
that the brain wound the victim suffered "is usually a fatal wound",
he said that it would not necessarily be instantly fatal. He further
stated that there was no blood found in the victim's lungs, due to the
swelling of her tongue and the loss of control of her jawbone. This,
he said, was persuasive evidence that the shot to the face eliminated
any possibility of survival. On cross-examination, Bolesta admitted
that the victim's heart "could have" or "might have" still been
beating when she was shot in the face, and that no doctor would have
declared her dead if her heart was still beating. The appeals court
ruled in the state's favor.
In September 2002, a federal district court vacated the guilty verdict
in Pondexter's case, finding that he received ineffective assistance
from his trial lawyer, who neither consulted a pathologist for the
trial, nor did he interview witness Michael Kendricks. The following
year, however, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the
district court's decision and reinstated his guilty verdict. All of
his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.
James Lee Henderson was also convicted of capital murder and sentenced
to death. He remains on death row as of this writing. According to the
Associated Press, Deon Williams and Ricky and James Bell received
prison terms.
"I wasn't the guy who killed her," Pondexter stated in an interview
from death row the week before his execution. He admitted that he shot
the victim after Henderson handed him the gun. He blamed himself for
being "a follower". "For the part I played in it, I apologize."
Martha Lennox was a multimillionaire at the time of her killing, but
neither she nor either of her brothers ever married. Her family
fortune is now under the control of a charitable foundation that has
supported the Nature Conservancy in Texas.
"I am not mad," Pondexter said in his last statement at his execution.
"I'm a little upset and disappointed in the courts. I feel I've been
let down." He said he hoped that people would learn from his life. He
then looked toward the district attorney who prosecuted him and a
distant cousin of his victim and said, "I know I'm wrong asking you to
forgive me." The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced
dead at 6:18 p.m.
David Carson
(Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney
General's Office, Associated Press, court documents.)
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Texas Execution Information
www.txexecutions.org