A Dallas murderer who killed his estranged wife and her  6-year-old daughter in 2009, faces execution by lethal injection later today.  Juan Lozano of the Associated Press reports that Gary Green decided to kill his wife, Lovetta Armstead and her three children after she informed him that she sought to annul their recent marriage.  On the day of the murders Green wrote Armstead that “there will be five lives taken today me being the fifth.”  A July 2021 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit describes the murders.  On September 21, 2009 Green went to Armstead’s home and stabbed her more than two dozen times.  He then drowned the 6-year-old girl in the bathtub, before stabbing 9-year-old Jerrett, who talked him out of killing he and his 12-year-old brother.  At trial Jerrett recounted that he “told Green because we’re too little to die and we won’t tell anybody about it.”   The overwhelming evidence of guilt, including Green’s confession, resulted in an unanimous jury finding him guilty of capital murder.

At the sentencing hearing  “The State presented evidence of Green’s previous violent conduct. The State first introduced testimony by Green’s high school girlfriend Jennifer Wheeler that after she broke up with Green, she gave Green a ride home one morning when she saw him at a bus stop near her house. During this encounter, Green forced Wheeler into the passenger seat, drove her to a park, strangled her with his shoelaces, and stabbed her in the chest. He then drove Wheeler to the hospital, where he lied and told her family that she had been robbed. Green pled guilty to aggravated assault based on the incident. The State also presented testimony from Shulonda Ransom, another of Green’s ex-girlfriends and the mother of his child. Ransom testified that Green physically abused her by hitting and choking her while she was pregnant with their son—once, to the point that Ransom lost consciousness. Last, the State introduced evidence that Green had been involved in an armed robbery of a grocery store to which he later confessed.”

Green’s trial counsel pointed to Green’s history of mental health problems and low IQ, arguing that he was unable to control his violent impulses.  The sentencing jury did not agree and recommended a death sentence.  The AP story reports that, as of this morning, Green’s attorneys have not filed a petition for a stay of execution.

The post Texas To Execute Double Murderer appeared first on Crime & Consequences.