Texas serial murderer Garcia Glen White is scheduled for execution this week for the murders of 16-year-old identical twin sisters and their mother in 1989. This will be the nation's sixth execution in a 10-day period.
But White's attorneys argue that his mental deficiencies − combined with prolonged use of crack cocaine − are more to blame than White, described by those who knew him as a gentle giant whose life went off the rails because of football injuries, job loss and an ensuing drug addiction.
"Glen was the kindest person I knew," a friend named Ray Manuel wrote about White, according to court records obtained by USA TODAY. "Glen was quick to cry," wrote his younger sister, Monica Garrett. And his older brother, Alfred White Jr. said: "He was the biggest wimp you'd ever find."
The White they describe couldn't be farther from the White who confessed to killing five people, including a Houston mother named Bonita Edwards and her identical twin daughters, Annette and Bernette Edwards, just one day after their 16th birthday and a few weeks before Christmas in 1989.
The Edwards' bodies were riddled with stab wounds in various states of undress, and strong evidence showed that Bernette had been sexually assaulted, court records show. Their murders went unsolved for six years.
“Five people murdered, in three separate transactions, including two teenage girls, is simply too much carnage to ignore and is the type of case for which the death penalty is appropriate," Harris County prosecutor Josh Reiss told USA TODAY.
Here's what we know about the case.
What did Garcia Glen White do?
White has confessed to killing five people in three separate attacks:
- 1989: Greta Williams, 27, was beaten to death just a few months after moving to Houston from Chicago for a fresh start.
- 1989: Bonita Edwards and her twin daughters Annette and Bernette, 16, were stabbed in their Houston home. Evidence suggests Bernette was sexually assaulted.
- 1995: Hai Pham, a convenience store worker and father of seven, was also beaten to death. Pham had just moved his family to the U.S. from Vietnam nine months earlier and had big dreams for his children, his son told USA TODAY.
Of the five murders, prosecutors only pursued charges in the Edwards case, and White was found guilty of murdering Annette and Bernette.
White had been arrested in Pham's murder when one of White's close friends told police that White had admitted killing the Edwards family. On top of White's eventual confession, his DNA was a 99.9999% match to semen found on Bernette, who had a pink shirt wrapped around the back of her neck and through her mouth as a gag, court records show.
The ensuing investigation found that White and Bonita Edwards had been using crack cocaine while her daughters were in their bedroom. White told police that he and Edwards began fighting,
"She reached for a knife, and I took the knife and stabbed her," he said, according to court records. "Some kids come out. I went into the bedroom after them. ... I stabbed one in the bedroom and one in the living room."
'I could see him changing': Football star turned drug addict
White, now 61, was one of seven siblings who grew up in a loving home, according to court records.
He was a poor student and a stellar football player, eventually earning a scholarship and playing for Lubbock Christian College before an injury shattered his knee and his sports career. Court documents show his girlfriend got pregnant and he dropped out of college.
For a time, White held down a job and helped support his girlfriend and three kids but another devastating injury derailed his working life, court records say. A friend named Howard Gordon described watching White's downward spiral after the workplace injury, when White turned to the escape that drugs provided.
"He didn't have any structure in his life," Gordon said. "I could see him changing, and when I saw the guys he was hanging out with, I knew that no good would come of it."
Another friend, Ray Manuel, said he was around White while he was using.
"I told Glen I didn't want my daughter around any negative influences and told Glen he would have to make a choice," Manuel said. "He chose the drugs and we parted ways."
After White's crimes became known, Gordon said he couldn't believe it. "Until he got hooked on the drugs, there was nothing in him that would have ever done this."
After White had been imprisoned for some time, he and Gordon struck up a correspondence. Gordon observed: "He has returned to that sweet guy I knew before he was on drugs."
Garcia Glen White says he doesn't deserve to die; victim's brother disagrees
White's attorneys previously won him a stay of execution, the day before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Jan. 28, 2015. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued the stay following arguments from White's attorneys that new scientific evidence more clearly showed the effects that cocaine use had on the brain.
Now that White's execution has been scheduled again, his attorneys are continuing arguments that police took advantage of White's mental deficiencies to elicit a confession without an attorney present. They're also arguing that the prosecution worked to eliminate Black jurors in order to tip the odds in their favor.
Judges and courts have rejected all his recent appeals, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to hold a clemency hearing for him, clearing the way for Texas to execute him Tuesday without intervention from a court or Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Family members of two of White's victims interviewed by USA TODAY say they'll be at the execution to witness the death in hopes it will give them some closure. That includes Dewanta Washington, whose sister White confessed to beating to death.
Washington said, "My sister won't be truly free until he's executed, until he pays his debt."
