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Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (Vincent Cooks)

Texas Attorney General Media Advisory

Vincent Edward Cooks Scheduled to be Executed
AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following information on Vincent Edward Cooks, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2001.

Vincent Edward Cooks was convicted on Dec. 7, 1988 of murdering peace officer Gary Don McCarthy in the course of a robbery which occurred in Dallas, Texas, on Feb. 26, 1988. A summary of the evidence presented at trial follows.

FACTS OF THE CRIME

On Feb. 26 1988,Vincent Edward Cooks and two of his friends, Tony Ray Harvey and Tracy Stallworth, rented a blue Plymouth and parked it down the street from the Brancatos Grocery Store in Dallas, Texas. They also parked a stolen Oldsmobile in a parking lot across from the store. All three men then sat in the Plymouth and waited.

At 4:30 p.m. that same day, Mark DeCardenas, owner of the Brancatos Grocery Store, went to the bank to obtain $30,000 for the store's check cashing service. Thirty-three-year-old Gary Don McCarthy, an off-duty police officer who worked part time as the store security guard, accompanied DeCardenas on the bank run. As Cooks, Harvey and Stallworth observed DeCardenas and Officer McCarthy returning to the store, Cooks and Harvey left the Plymouth and got inside the Oldsmobile still parked across from the store. Cooks then approached DeCardenas and Officer McCarthy, and attempted to grab the money bag from DeCardenas. As Officer McCarthy pushed DeCardenas away from Cooks, DeCardenas dropped the money bag. Cooks then shot Officer McCarthy. The officer returned fire and shattered the Oldsmobile's rear window as Cooks fled the scene.

The damaged window did not go unnoticed by two police officers patrolling the area. Suspecting that the car was stolen, the officers pursued, but found the vehicle abandoned when they reached it. The officers found a revolver on the floorboard of the vehicle. Police arrested Stallworth, Harvey and Cooks shortly after tracing the license plate number to the rented blue Plymouth.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

March 10, 1988 - Cooks was indicted for the capital murder of Gary D. McCarthy in the course of a robbery.
December 7, 1988 - Cooks was convicted of capital murder.
September 16, 1992 - The Court of Criminal Appeals confirmed the conviction.
June 28, 1993 - The Supreme Court denied a petition for writ of certiori.
April 1995 - Cooks filed for state habeas relief.
April 3, 1996 - The Court of Criminal Appeals adopted the recommendation by the state habeas court that relief be denied. Execution set for May 22, 1996.
May 16, 1996 - Cooks requested that the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, stay his execution. The district court granted the request.
April 23, 1997 - Cooks filed his petition for federal habeas corpus relief in the district court.
December 2000 - The district court entered a final judgment denying relief.
July 12, 2001 - The Fifth Circuit denied Cooks' request for permission to appeal the decision.
August 7, 2001- The Trial Court reset Cooks' execution for Dec. 12, 2001.

PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

In 1984, Cooks fired two shots at a police officer when the officer attempted to quell a nightclub fight. Cooks also committed two additional aggravated robberies, both of which were accomplished in much the same manner as the primary offense.

Cooks committed the first of those robberies on Nov. 11, 1987, when he robbed a small Dallas grocery store in the middle of the afternoon as the store's owner returned with $37,000 from a bank run. Cooks pointed his gun at the store owner and demanded the money. Police identified his fingerprint, as well as Stallworth's palm print, on a "hot- wired" Oldsmobile Cutlass that was abandoned near the store. Cooks committed the second aggravated robbery in January 1988, when, again wielding his gun, he stole $30,000 from a Dallas liquor store early in the afternoon as store employees returned from a bank run.

Cooks was also disruptive in jail as he awaited trial for capital murder. On one occasion, Cooks scattered food all over the front wall of his cell, then loudly demanded more food and threatened that "if anybody messes with me, I'll kill somebody." Smiling, Cooks added, "[T]his is not the first time I've been accused of it." On several occasions as officers escorted him from his cell, through the officers' dining room, to the gymnasium, Cooks tried to grab food in the officers' dining room. When told not to grab the food, Cooks once responded, "Don't no [expletive] police tell me what to do. Any police that mess with me, I'll beat their ass." Cooks also had a quick temper and intimidated jail staff members.

Texas Executions Information Center

Vincent Edward Cooks, 37, was executed by lethal injection on 12 December in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a policeman during a robbery.

In February 1988, supermarket owner Mark DeCardenas went to the bank to obtain $30,000 in cash for the store's check cashing service. Gary Don McCarthy, 33, a Dallas police officer who was working as the store's security guard, accompanied him. McCarthy was not in uniform. While DeCardenas and McCarthy were at the bank, Dallas police officers noticed a trio of men sitting in a parked Plymouth outside of a supermarket. They found no reason to detain the men, but they did note the license plate of the car.

After the police left, two of the men -- Vincent Cooks, 23, and Tony Harvey, 23 -- got out of the Plymouth and entered an Oldsmobile. Tracy Stallworth, 27, stayed in the Plymouth. When they spotted DeCardenas and McCarthy returning to the store, Cooks exited the Oldsmobile and approached DeCardenas and McCarthy on foot. Waving his gun, he demanded the money bag and tried to grab it from DeCardenas. McCarthy pushed him away and DeCardenas dropped the bag. Cooks then shot McCarthy and grabbed a bundle amounting to $10,000. Cooks got into the stolen Oldsmobile and fled. McCarthy shot at the car and shattered its rear window. McCarthy was then taken to a hospital, where he died.

Police found the Oldsmobile with the shattered rear window, abandoned. A revolver was found inside. Police also traced the license plate of the Plymouth to Tracy Stallworth. They arrested Stallworth the day after the shooting. Stallworth named Cooks and Harvey as accomplices. A witness later picked out Cooks from a police lineup and identified him as the killer of Officer McCarthy.

Cooks had previously been convicted of aggravated assault in a case that included him firing shots at a police officer. He began serving a 5-year sentence in December 1986. He served 8 months before being paroled, in August 1987. (At this time, early parole was common in Texas because of strict prison population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.)

At his punishment hearing, prosecutors presented evidence that Cooks committed two very similar armed robberies prior to the one in which Gary McCarthy was killed. In November 1987, a grocery store owner was robbed after a bank run, and police found fingerprints belonging to Cooks and Stallworth on a stolen car that was abandoned nearby. The other armed robbery Cooks was believed to have committed occurred in January 1988, when a liquor store employee was robbed while returning from the bank.

While awaiting trial in jail, Cooks threatened to kill or beat any police who "messed" with him.

Early witness identifications pointed to a killer who was much shorter and smaller than the 6-foot-3, 300-pound Cooks. Nevertheless, a jury found Cooks guilty beyond reasonable doubt and convicted him and sentenced him to death in December 1988. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction in September 1992. Cooks was originally scheduled to be executed in 1996, but a U.S. District Court issued a stay in order to hear one of his appeals. That court rejected his appeal in 2000, and all of Cooks' subsequent motions to appeal were denied.

Throughout his appeals and his stay on death row, Cooks claimed he was innocent of shooting McCarthy. "I haven't been a saint, but I didn't commit this murder," he told a reporter last week. "I did many wrong things, but they're executing me for something I didn't do." He admitted committing the other armed robberies, but "nobody was hurt."

At his execution, Cooks expressed love for his family. He also apologized to his mother. "I'm sorry, Teach [Mom] for not being a better son and not doing better things," he told her. Addressing the victim's family in a booth on the other side of the room, he said, "You people over there, you know what these people are doing. By them executing me, ain't doing nothing right. I don't weigh 180 pounds, 5-foot-7." After Cooks finished his statement, he said, "Do what you do, warden." The lethal injection was begun, and Cooks was pronounced dead at 6:28 p.m.

Tracy Dewayne Stallworth and Tony Ray Harvey were convicted of several crimes including aggravated robbery. All sentences were set to run concurrently, with each man's longest sentence being 20 years. News reports did not provide any information on either man's current status, but public records show that Stallworth renewed his driver's license in 1992.

ProDeathPenalty.com

Vincent Cooks received a death sentence for the February 28, 1988 murder of Dallas Police officer Gary McCarthy outside a grocery store in Dallas. Cooks had been paroled just six months earlier for an aggravated assault in which he fired shots at a police officer. He had served less than one year of a five year sentence when released.

On Feb. 26 1988, Vincent Edward Cooks and two of his friends, Tony Ray Harvey and Tracy Stallworth, rented a blue Plymouth and parked it down the street from the Brancatos Grocery Store in Dallas, Texas. They also parked a stolen Oldsmobile in a parking lot across from the store. All three men then sat in the Plymouth and waited. At 4:30 p.m. that same day, the owner of the Brancatos Grocery Store went to the bank to obtain $30,000 for the store's check cashing service. Thirty-three-year-old Gary Don McCarthy, an off-duty police officer who worked part-time as the store security guard, accompanied DeCardenas on the bank run. As Cooks, Harvey and Stallworth observed them returning to the store, Cooks and Harvey left the Plymouth and got inside the Oldsmobile still parked across from the store. Cooks then approached the store owner and Officer McCarthy, and attempted to grab the money bag. As Officer McCarthy pushed the owner away from Cooks, he dropped the money bag. Cooks then shot Officer McCarthy. The officer returned fire and shattered the Oldsmobile's rear window as Cooks fled the scene. Gary McCarthy died later at Parkland Memorial Hospital.

The damaged window did not go unnoticed by two police officers patrolling the area. Suspecting that the car was stolen, the officers pursued, but found the vehicle abandoned when they reached it. The officers found a revolver on the floorboard of the vehicle. Police arrested Stallworth, Harvey and Cooks shortly after tracing the license plate number to the rented blue Plymouth. Tracy Stallworth named Cooks and Tony Ray Harvey as accomplices. Cooks was identified in a line-up as the person who had murdered Gary. In 1984, Cooks fired two shots at a police officer when the officer attempted to quell a nightclub fight. Cooks also committed two additional aggravated robberies, both of which were accomplished in much the same manner as the primary offense. Cooks committed the first of those robberies on Nov. 11, 1987, when he robbed a small Dallas grocery store in the middle of the afternoon as the store's owner returned with $37,000 from a bank run. Cooks pointed his gun at the store owner and demanded the money. Police identified his fingerprint, as well as Stallworth's palm print, on a "hot- wired" Oldsmobile Cutlass that was abandoned near the store.

Cooks committed the second aggravated robbery in January 1988, when, again wielding his gun, he stole $30,000 from a Dallas liquor store early in the afternoon as store employees returned from a bank run. Cooks was also disruptive in jail as he awaited trial for capital murder. On one occasion, Cooks scattered food all over the front wall of his cell, then loudly demanded more food and threatened that "if anybody messes with me, I'll kill somebody." Smiling, Cooks added, "[T]his is not the first time I've been accused of it." On several occasions as officers escorted him from his cell, through the officers' dining room, to the gymnasium, Cooks tried to grab food in the officers' dining room. When told not to grab the food, Cooks once responded, "Don't no [expletive] police tell me what to do. Any police that mess with me, I'll beat their ass." Cooks also had a quick temper and intimidated jail staff members. "The difficult part of this is reliving the memories," Candy McCarthy, the slain officer's sister, said Wednesday. "We've been waiting nearly 14 years for this."

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Vincent Cooks is scheduled to become the 256th person executed since 1976 in Texas on Dec. 12. Convicted of the robbery/murder of Dallas Police Officer Gary McCarthy in 1988, Cooks’ appeals have focused on scanty eyewitness testimony.

Cooks has argued on appeal that only one out of ten eyewitnesses to the murder were able to identify him from a lineup, with a number of other witnesses identifying people other than Cooks. Eyewitness accounts have also given inconsistent judgements of the height and weight of the murderer. Some claimed he weighed approximately 220 pounds and was around 5' 10". Cooks weighed 318 pounds at the time of his arrest and is 6' 0". These facts were presented at trial and federal courts have sided with the jury. It is worth remembering that the eyewitness testimony of one person was enough to put Anthony Porter within days of an Illinois execution chamber- testimony that was later shown to be false. Porter has since been fully exonerated of the crime.

Cooks has also suggested that the jury was unfairly motivated to see him as a violent and dangerous man. As evidence, he has questioned why his legs were shackled during trial. Previous courts have ruled that shackling a defendant in the court seriously damages the presumption of innocence all defendants are entitled to. Far from embracing this claim, federal courts have accepted the prosecutor’s rationale that it was not intended that the jury actually see the shackles. Moreover, at trial prosecutors misconstrued Cooks’ school record, claiming that he had to be removed from class so the rest of the school could function. In fact, Cooks was merely placed in a disciplinary setting for his truancy problem.

The strategy of the prosecution to paint Vincent Cooks as an aggressive and violent person has worked to Cooks’ disadvantage. Federal courts repeatedly have denied Cooks’ contention that the jury was improperly prejudiced. Please write and call to let Gov. Perry know that convictions require evidence, not innuendo.

Dallas Morning News

Dallas Officer's Killer Executed; 17th Texas Inmate Put to Death This Year.

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A parolee convicted of killing a Dallas police officer during a robbery almost 14 years ago was executed Wednesday night. Vincent Cooks, 37, expressed love for his family and friends and apologized to his mother, Annie Daniels, for not being "a better son." "It wasn't your fault I did the things I did," he told his mother. "At least I won't be here anymore. I'm going to miss you."

Mr. Cooks made no eye contact with relatives of slain Officer Gary McCarthy, but he seemed to maintain his contention that he was not the killer. Officer McCarthy, a rookie, was killed while working an off-duty security job at a West Dallas grocery store. "By them executing me, they aren't going to make it right," Mr. Cooks said. He repeated his contention that initial witness identifications pointed to a killer who was smaller and shorter than the 6-foot-3, 300-plus Mr. Cooks. "I don't weigh 180 pounds, 5-foot-7," he said. Mr. Cooks repeatedly exchanged "love you" and "see you later" with his mother, aunt, and other relatives, smiling and laughing at times. He concluded by addressing the warden. "Do what you do, warden," he said. He was pronounced dead at 6:28 p.m., 11 minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing.
"I did many wrong things," Mr. Cooks said recently. "But they're executing me for something I didn't do."

Prosecutors who worked to convict the Houston parolee said they were confident they got the right man. "There was no doubt in my mind that Cooks was the gunman," said Janice Warder, a former assistant district attorney in Dallas County and now a state district judge in Dallas. Mr. Cooks was the 17th Texas inmate to receive a lethal injection this year, making the 2001 execution total in the state the lowest since three were executed in 1996.

When he was arrested for fatally shooting Officer McCarthy during a Feb. 26, 1988, robbery, Mr. Cooks was on parole after serving nine months of a five-year term for aggravated assault for shooting at a Houston police officer. Officer McCarthy, 33, was a married father of two and a former Baptist missionary fluent in several languages. "The difficult part of this is reliving the memories," said Candy McCarthy, the slain officer's sister. "We've been waiting nearly 14 years for this." Officer McCarthy was accompanying the manager of the market to a bank to pick up $30,000 to be used for cashing checks. Followed in a car by the robbers, the officer, who was not in uniform, and the market manager were confronted by a gunman who demanded the money bag as they were about to enter the store. Officer McCarthy was fatally shot during the confrontation. The robbers fled without the cash.

A short time before the shooting, officers had questioned Mr. Cooks, Tracy Stallworth, and Tony Harvey as their car was parked near the market. They had no reason to detain the trio but made note of the license plate. Given the descriptions of suspects after the shooting, authorities tracked the car to Mr. Stallworth's girlfriend. When Mr. Stallworth was arrested, court documents show, he gave up Mr. Harvey and Mr. Cooks. "When you get caught doing something, you don't tell. It's a code," Mr. Cooks said from death row. "If I knew, I wouldn't tell. They put me in here wrongfully." But Mr. Cooks did acknowledge a string of similar robberies. "Nobody was hurt," he said. Mr. Harvey and Mr. Stallworth each received 20-year prison terms.