Execution: Gary Etheridge
David Carson
August in Huntsville, Texas for killing a 15-year-old girl during the
course of a robbery.
In February 1990, Etheridge, then 26, went to the home of Gail
Chauviere, looking for money to buy drugs. Chauviere managed a
condominium complex where Etheridge once worked doing maintenance. He
knew that Chauviere brought the money from the apartment complex home
with her, and he knew where she lived because she let him follow her
home from work one day, so she could give him a stray dog.
Chauviere came home from work one evening to find Etheridge's car in
her driveway. She entered her house and found Etheridge sitting on the
couch with her 15-year-old daughter, Christie. Etheridge asked for
the apartment money. Chauviere told him she would give him the money
and pleaded with him not to hurt Christie. Christie then started
moving off of the couch toward her mother. When Etheridge grabbed her
by her hair and pulled her back to him, she screamed. Etheridge then
pulled out a knife and stabbed Gail more than thirty times until she
was unconscious. She suffered multiple stab wounds to her neck, face,
chest, abdomen, and arms. Etheridge then pulled off Christie's
clothes below her waist, tied her hands with a telephone cord, and
gagged her with a towel. He stabbed her four times and sexually
assaulted her with the knife. The mother survived the attack, but her
daughter did not.
Etheridge couldn't start his car, so he fled the scene in Gail's car.
He picked up his wife, Theresa, their baby daughter, Brittany, and two
children that Theresa was babysitting. He then drove to the bar where
the children's mother worked and left them there. After that, he drove
with Theresa and Brittany to the home of Charles and Glenda Roenker.
Gary cleaned up in their bathroom. Gary and Theresa asked the
Roenkers to take care of Brittany and left her with them.
Etheridge later abandoned his wife in Mobile, Alabama. He also
wrecked Chauviere's car in Mobile and hitchhiked back to Texas. He
was arrested five days after the murder, less than fifty miles from
the crime scene. When he was arrested, he told the officer, "Yes, I
know I'm under arrest for killing that fifteen-year-old girl. I'm
sorry for what I did, and I was going back to Brazoria County to turn
myself in." He also made a written confession and a tape-recorded
confession after his arrest. In the tape-recorded confession, he
denied raping Christie and did not admit to stabbing either woman, but
he did state, "I killed a girl." He said that he was alone the whole
time and that a someone across the street saw him arrive and leave.
At his trial, Gail Chauviere identified Etheridge as the attacker and
testified that he was alone. A neighbor who lived across the street
testified that he saw Etheridge driving Chauviere's car out of the
driveway. He also testified that Etheridge was alone in the car. The
woman whose children Theresa was babysitting testified that Gary told
her he had killed a man in a knife fight. Glenda Roenker testified
that, while at her house, Gary told her that he had stabbed a man.
Etheridge was also placed at the scene by blood evidence.
Etheridge had an extensive juvenile criminal history. He joined the
adult criminal ranks within a few months of his seventeenth birthday
and remained there until the day he died. His first conviction was
for burglary in May 1981, for which he received a sentence of five
years' probation. Over the next five years, he was convicted of
theft, aggravated assault, three more burglaries, DWI, and driving
with a suspended license. In all, he was sent to prison four times,
with sentences totaling thirty years. Each time, he was paroled less
than two years into his sentence. The last time he walked out of
prison was in December 1989, ten months after returning on a parole
violation. (At this time, early release was common in Texas because
of strict prison population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge
William Wayne Justice.) Six weeks later, Etheridge attacked Gail and
Christie Chauviere.
A jury convicted Etheridge of capital murder and sentenced him to
death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction
and sentence in June 1994. All of his subsequent appeals in state and
federal court were denied, but he did win several stays of execution
during his time on death row. He was scheduled to be executed in
November 2000, but he received a stay from the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals. At issue was the competence of one of his court-appointed
attorneys. That matter was dismissed in April 2002, and his execution
was rescheduled for June 2002. That date was then stayed by the CCA
so that it could hear a complaint against the judge who signed
Etheridge's death warrant. A new judge was assigned to Etheridge's
case, and that judge signed a new death warrant in July 2002.
While on death row, Etheridge married a German death-penalty opponent
named Claudia Schweiger. Schweiger built a web site,
www.garyetheridge.com, which asserted Etheridge's innocence and
appealed for activism and financial support on his behalf. According
to this web site, Etheridge claimed that he did not kill Christie
Chauviere and that he never confessed to such. He did admit to
robbing and stabbing Gail Chauviere, but said that someone else at the
scene -- who he refused to name -- killed Christie. He said that he
was on his way to turn himself in for robbing and stabbing Gail when
he was arrested. He said that police manufactured a confession and
coerced him into signing it by beating him, making threats against his
wife and daughter, and refusing his requests to see a lawyer. Claudia
offered to name the actual killer in a newspaper interview in exchange
for payment.
"I never intended to hurt everyone," Etheridge said in a death-row
interview. "I cut and stabbed Gail with a little bitty pocket knife."
He said that Gail fought with him when he tried to put her in a
closet. "She kicked me and it hurt," he said. But he denied killing
Christie. "I was there. I done wrong and I feel responsible, but I
did not kill the girl."
Three days before the execution, Governor Rick Perry received a
registered letter from Claudia Schweiger-Etheridge, inviting him to
witness her husband's execution. "I think it would be important to
you to finally witness an execution since you already signed so many
death warrants," the letter read. (As mentioned above in the
discussion of Etheridge's second stay of execution, death warrants in
Texas are signed by judges, not the governor.) This letter named
Ellis Michael Etheridge, Gary's brother, as the killer.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied Etheridge's clemency
request by a 17-0 vote. The U.S. Supreme Court also refused to half
the execution. Governor Perry declined to issue an emergency
reprieve. He did not attend the execution.
"To the victim's family -- I'm sorry for what was taken from you,"
Etheridge said in his last statement. "I hope you have peace. To my
sweet Claudia, I love you. Stay strong, keep building, and be
careful. I hope there's closure for the victim's family and
everybody. That's about it." After the lethal injection was started,
Etheridge said, "I can feel it burning. I'm getting really dizzy."
He then gasped, sputtered, and lost consciousness. He was pronounced
dead at 6:22 p.m.
Gail Chauviere required blood transfusions because of her wounds. She
contracted hepatitis C from the transfusions and never fully
recovered. She died in 1999 from the disease.
David Carson
(Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney
General's Office, Associated Press, Huntsville Item,
www.garyetheridge.com.)
--
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