The man responsible for the 1998 double murder of a Houston mother and her boyfriend is scheduled for execution in Huntsville on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
Charles Victor Thompson, 55, was convicted of murdering Dennise Hayslip and Darren Cain at an apartment in northwest Harris County.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely a piece of me that\u2019s still in \u201998,\u201d said Wade Hayslip, Dennise Hayslip\u2019s son.<\/p>\n
Wade Hayslip was 13 years old when his mother was murdered and remembers being pulled out of class at Trinity Klein Lutheran School. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy vice principal at the time and my youth pastor both were the ones that told me,\u201d said Hayslip. \u201c\u2018There\u2019s been a shooting, there was one person who has been killed, your mom has been shot.\u2019 And then I said, \u2018it was Chuck, wasn\u2019t it?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Dennise Hayslip started dating Thompson shortly after her 18-year marriage to Wade\u2019s father ended. Wade Hayslip said Thompson became violent towards his mother.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were a couple of nights where they came home late and he was raging mad; punching holes in the wall, just upset,\u201d said Hayslip. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t long after that though, then I noticed the actual physical abuse on my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hayslip said his mom stopped seeing Thompson and started dating Darren Cain. Investigators said Thompson wouldn\u2019t leave Dennise alone and Cain eventually confronted him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a fight with Darren, he lost the fight,\u201d said retired Harris County prosecutor Vic Wisner.<\/p>\n
Wisner prosecuted Thompson and said the night of the fight a neighbor called the Sheriff\u2019s Office. Wisner said a deputy arrived and found the pair sitting in front of Dennise\u2019s apartment drinking a beer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey somehow made peace, shared a beer together, agreed not to fight anymore. He said he accepted the fact that Dennise wanted to be with Darren and not with him,\u201d Wisner said.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s deputy made Thompson leave the complex. He returned a few hours later with a gun and broke into Dennise\u2019s apartment.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe shot Darren twice in the chest. Darren turned to flee, he was shot once in the back, fell on the floor, and then Thompson held a gun to the back of his head, upper part of his neck, executed him right there,\u201d said Wisner. \u201cFrom what [Thompson] told his friend\u2019s mother, he grabbed Dennise in a headlock, forced her to look at Darren\u2019s dying body, told her, \u2018I can kill you too, [expletive],\u2019 shot right through her cheek.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dennise Hayslip was taken by Life Flight Helicopter to the hospital, where she later died. During his trial Thompson unsuccessfully argued a dislodged breathing tube at the hospital is what killed Dennise Hayslip, not the gunshot to her face.<\/p>\n
He also claimed he didn\u2019t mean to shoot Cain, but the gun went off during a struggle. Wisner said the evidence refutes Thompson\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n
Wisner said Thompson\u2019s confession to his friend\u2019s mother after the shooting prompted him to try to hire a hitman from his jail cell. Another inmate told Sheriff\u2019s officials about Thompson\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n
An undercover agent by the name of Gary Johnson was sent to the jail posing as a hitman. <\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s life was the basis for the 2024 Netflix film, \u2018Hit Man,\u2019 starring Glen Powell.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a state\u2019s witness, she\u2019s the only witness they got. That\u2019s kind of more important,\u201d Thompson is heard telling Johnson on an undercover recording from July 7, 1998. \u201cSo it\u2019s more important to kill her than to get the gun back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson also tried to direct Johnson to the creek where he threw the gun used in the murders. Thompson is also heard on the tape complaining he paid another man to carry out the assassination, but that man took his money and did nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I go ahead and take her out and you get out, is there a chance you could tighten me up then?\u201d Johnson asks.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, hell yes,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOK, I\u2019ll kill her for $1,500,\u201d Johnson tells Thompson.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe doesn\u2019t have a soul, he doesn\u2019t a conscience,\u201d Wisner said.<\/p>\n
After being found guilty and sentenced to death, an appellate court ruled the use of the undercover tape involving Johnson was a violation of Thompson\u2019s sixth amendment rights. Thompson was given a second punishment trial, which also ended in a death sentence.<\/p>\n
After his second punishment trial in 2005, and before he was transferred back to death row, Thompson escaped from the Harris County jail. He was arrested three days later in Shreveport, La. Thompson said he made it all the way to Shreveport by posing as a Hurricane Katrina evacuee. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just now starting to feel and put into words some of the things that I\u2019m feeling,\u201d Wade Hayslip said of Thompson\u2019s impending execution. <\/p>\n
Hayslip said he will witness Thompson\u2019s execution. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just looking for accountability and the only thing he has to offer me at this juncture is his life,\u201d said Hayslip. <\/p>\n
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