From: davidc@wa-wd.com   
      
   Charles Victor Thompson, 55, was executed by lethal injection on 28   
   January 2026 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a man and woman in   
   their home.   
      
   On Thursday, 30 April 1998, at about 3:00 a.m., Houston police   
   responded to a disturbance call at the apartment of Dennise Hayslip,   
   39. They found her and her boyfriend, Darren Cain, involved in an   
   argument with Thompson, then 27, who was Hayslip's ex-boyfriend. No   
   one wanted to press charges, so the officers told Thompson to leave   
   the complex and to stay away. He returned three hours later with a   
   gun, kicked the door in, and shot Cain four times in the neck and   
   chest, killing him. He then reloaded the gun, turned to Hayslip, said,   
   "I can shoot you too, bitch," and fired once. The bullet struck   
   Hayslip in her cheek and passed through her face, partially severing   
   her tongue. Thompson then left the apartment, threw the gun into a   
   creek, and went to the house of a friend, Diane Zernia, where he fell   
   asleep.   
      
   Bleeding profusely, Hayslip sought help from neighbors. She was taken   
   to the hospital by helicopter. She fell into a coma while doctors were   
   preparing for surgery. About a week later, her family took her off of   
   life support, and she died.   
      
   After Thompson awoke, he confessed to Zernia. He then phoned his   
   father, who took him to the police station, where he surrendered.   
      
   Thompson later called Zernia from jail and tried to persuade her to   
   lie about what he had told her. He stressed to her that she was the   
   only witness who could link him to the murders. She refused. Thompson   
   then attempted to arrange for fellow inmate Max Humphrey, who was   
   scheduled to be released on 30 June, to kill Zernia. He drew a map of   
   the murder weapon's location for fellow inmate Jack Reid and asked   
   Reid to pass the weapon's location along to a contact on the outside   
   so that the weapon could be retrieved. Reid instead went to the   
   police.   
      
   The police were unable to locate the murder weapon from the   
   information Reid had given them, so investigator Gary Johnson visited   
   Thompson at the jail, posing as Reid's outside contact. Johnson wore a   
   wire to record the conversation. Thompson told Johnson that he   
   believed Humphrey had betrayed him. and offered Johnson $1,500 to   
   retrieve the weapon and murder Zernia. During the meeting, he pressed   
   a map against the glass of the visitor's booth that was similar to the   
   one Reid had given them. He gave Johnson Zernia's home address and   
   described her husband, daughter, home, and vehicles to him and   
   discussed the best times to carry out the murder.   
      
   The police recovered the murder weapon from Cypress Creek on 18 July.   
      
   The Harris County district attorney charged Thompson with solicitation   
   of capital murder. Undeterred, on 21 August, Thompson solicited the   
   help of another inmate, Robin Rhodes. Thompson gave Rhodes a list of   
   people, including Zernia, who needed to be either killed or made   
   unable or unwilling to testify against him.   
      
   Thompson's criminal history began at age 14, when he committed a   
   string of crimes that resulted in over $60,000 of damage to homes and   
   property. While on probation from a juvenile corrections facility, he   
   stole his father's motorcycle, ran away, and went on another crime   
   spree. He was arrested in 1987 and sent to another juvenile facility.   
      
   As an adult, Thompson married, but later abandoned his wife and two   
   children. He was arrested in 1996 for transporting illegal immigrants   
   from Mexico.   
      
   A jury found Thompson guilty of capital murder in April 1999 and   
   sentenced him to death. In October 2001, the Texas Court of Criminal   
   Appeals upheld his conviction, but ordered a new punishment hearing on   
   a 5-4 vote, with the majority finding that the prosecution violated   
   his Sixth Amendment right to counsel when it played the audio   
   recording of Thompson's jailhouse visitation conversation with   
   investigator Johnson for the jury.   
      
   Thompson was transferred from the Texas Department of Criminal   
   Justice's Death Row to the Harris County Jail in October 2005 for a   
   new sentencing hearing. He walked out of jail wearing street clothes   
   hidden in his cell, posing as an investigator with the attorney   
   general's office. He was on the loose for four days. He made it to   
   Shreveport, Louisiana, where he lived off of handouts by posing as a   
   Hurricane Katrina evacuee. A female penpal turned him for a $10,000   
   reward when he called to ask her for money to help him flee to Canada.   
      
   Upon his return to Harris County, a new jury resentenced Thompson to   
   death. The TCCA upheld that sentence unanimously in October 2007.   
      
   In February 2019, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to   
   hear Thompson's claim that the state improperly failed to disclose   
   that it had a past relationship with Robin Rhodes as a paid informant.   
   The appeals court ruled against Thompson in October 2019. All of his   
   subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.   
      
   In an interview with the Houston Press in October 2025, Thompson   
   maintained that he shot Cain in self-defense and that Hayslip got in   
   the way. He blamed her death on medical negligence. He also blamed   
   Houston police for not arresting him when they responded to the   
   early-morning disturbance call.   
      
   "It was obvious that I was three sheets to the wind," Thompson said.   
   "They let me walk off, I was staggering, and [they let me] get in my   
   car and drive away. I  should have gone to jail for public   
   intoxication."   
      
   The witnesses to Thompson's execution included Dennise Hayslip's son,   
   Wade, who was 13 at the time of the murders.   
      
   At his execution, Thompson apologized for his actions and asked the   
   families of his victims to find it in their hearts to forgive him. He   
   also added, "There is no winners in this situation; it creates more   
   victims and traumatizes more people 28 years later." He urged   
   witnesses to keep Jesus first and asked his children to "get to know   
   the Lord." The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced   
   dead at 6:50 p.m.   
      
   David Carson   
   Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, court documents,   
   Houston Press.   
   --   
   Texas Execution Information   
   www.txexecutions.org   
      
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