8th murderer executed in U.S. in 2000
606th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
3rd murderer executed in Texas in 2000
202nd murderer executed in Texas since 1976
(Race/Sex/Age at Murder-Execution) |
Birth |
(Race/Sex/Age at Murder) |
Murder |
Murder |
to Murderer |
Sentence |
||||
|
David Hicks B / M / 26 - 38 |
Ocolor Egger B / F / 88 |
Summary:
At her home outside of Teague, Texas, eighty-eight year old Ocolor Hegger was found dead, lying in a pool of blood, in her kitchen at approximately 9:15 a.m., on April 26, 1988, by a neighbor. Her head had been hit by repeated blows with a blunt instrument, and she had been sexually assaulted. The night before the body was found, her grandson, David Hicks, visited her home. A hammer, which family members knew hung on the inside door of Mrs. Hegger's kitchen cabinet, was missing, but later found in a neighbor's yard. An autopsy of the victim revealed massive blunt force injuries to her head and neck. At least eight blows were indicated. In addition, there was a superficial stab wound to the neck, numerous abrasions and contusions to the body, and evidence of a sexual assault. Presumptive testing revealed blood on clothes taken from Hicks's car. DNA testing excluded all suspects except Hicks. Three inmates who were in the Freestone County Jail while Hicks was awaiting trial testified for the State. Hicks was previously convicted of Aggravated Assault (1979), False Imprisonment (1984), and Burglary (1986 - paroled in 1987 after serving 15 months of 10 year sentence). One of the first DNA prosecutions in 1989, a subsequent test was performed in 1999 and confirmed guilt.
Citations:
Internet Sources:
Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (David Hicks)
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Texas Attorney General Media Advisory
MEDIA ADVISORY: David Hicks Scheduled to be Executed.AUSTIN - Wednesday, January 19, 2000 - Texas Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following information on David Hicks who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m., Thursday, January 20th:
FACTS OF THE CRIME
At her home outside of Teague, Texas, eighty-eight year old Ocolor Hegger was found dead, lying in a pool of blood, in her kitchen at approximately 9:15 a.m., on April 26, 1988, by a neighbor. Her head had been hit by repeated blows with a blunt instrument, and she had been sexually assaulted.
The night before the body was found, David Hicks, who was Mrs. Hegger's grandson, was visiting Mrs. Hegger in her home with his cousin, Lester Busby. Before entering Mrs. Hegger's house, Hicks talked with Eddie Branch, another grandson, who was leaving after his daily visit with Mrs. Hegger. Shortly thereafter, Hicks and Busby went inside Mrs. Hegger's house, talked with her, and then left ten to fifteen minutes later at approximately 7:15 p.m. When they left, Mrs. Hegger was watching television. Hicks and Busby went directly to the Porter home, one and one-half blocks away from Mrs. Hegger's house, and visited with Ethel and Robert Porter, and Jessie Gibson. Shortly after arriving at the Porters' home, Hicks left to go eat at his father's house. When Hicks returned, Hicks, Busby, and Gibson went to buy beer. After purchasing the beer, the men returned to the Porters' house and visited for a little while longer. Eventually, Hicks and Busby left. They went to Busby's house, located next door to Mrs. Hegger's home, where they continued to drink beer and talk. At approximately 9:30 p.m., Hicks left Busby's house and told Busby that he was going home. Busby went inside his house and did not watch Hicks leave.
After Mrs. Hegger's body was found the next morning, the police conducted a thorough search of the area and gathered evidence. A hammer, which family members knew hung on the inside door of Mrs. Hegger's kitchen cabinet, was missing. Two weeks later, on May 8, 1988, Busby found the missing hammer in his yard. He was certain that it had not been there at the time of the police search. Hugh Whitaker, a Deputy Sheriff for Freestone County, also testified that he had searched Busby's yard the day after the murder and that the hammer had not been there. Subsequent forensic tests on the hammer revealed blood, although the blood could not be typed as either human or animal.
An autopsy of the victim revealed massive blunt force injuries to her head and neck. At least eight blows were indicated. In addition, there was a superficial stab wound to the neck, numerous abrasions and contusions to the body, and evidence of a sexual assault. Death was caused by the blows to the head and neck. The sexual assault occurred at or near the time of death, which was placed at approximately 8:00 p.m. to midnight on April 25, 1988. The doctor who performed the autopsy testified that, from the condition of the body and an examination of the crime photographs, it was possible that Mrs. Hegger was initially attacked in her bedroom and left unconscious for a couple of hours. At that time, the attacker could have returned and delivered the fatal blows.
Presumptive testing revealed blood on clothes taken from Hicks's car. DNA testing excluded all suspects except Hicks. Three inmates who were in the Freestone County Jail while Hicks was awaiting trial testified for the State. Two of them, Patrick Comalander and Roger Dale Johnson, testified that Hicks had asked them if they knew how to get blood out of clothes and how many times clothes had to be washed in order to get all traces of blood out. Another inmate, Carter Kirven, testified that he had asked Hicks if he had killed his grandmother. Hicks told Kirven that he had but threatened to hurt Kirven if he told anyone. Kirven also testified that Hicks told him that he had used a knife during the murder, a fact not commonly known at that time.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Hicks was indicted in the 87th Judicial District Court of Freestone County, Texas, for the murder of Ocolor Hegger, his grandmother, while in the course of committing and attempting to commit aggravated sexual assault, a capital offense. Hicks pleaded not guilty to a jury, but was convicted on January 30, 1989. On February 1, 1989, the trial court sentenced Hicks to death. Because he was sentenced to death, appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was automatic. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in a published opinion on March 31, 1993. Hicks's petition for writ of certiorari was denied by the United States Supreme Court on June 20, 1994.
After his first federal application for writ of habeas corpus was dismissed for failure to exhaust state remedies, Hicks filed his state habeas petition. Prior to the trial court entering any findings of fact and conclusions of law, however, the Court of Criminal Appeals denied Hicks's request for state habeas relief on March 26, 1997. Hicks filed his second application for federal habeas relief on September 2, 1997. The district court, at the request of Hicks, ordered additional DNA testing of the remaining available evidentiary samples. On January 11, 1999, the district court denied the writ, and then denied permission to appeal on February 12, 1999. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit likewise denied permission to appeal. Hicks then filed a petition for writ of certiorari, which is pending before the Supreme Court.
PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY
Hicks's criminal record includes felony convictions for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 1979, false imprisonment with substantial risk of serious bodily injury in 1984, burglary of a vehicle in 1986, and burglary of a habitation in 1986. There was also evidence of several unadjudicated offenses, including numerous assaults, both in and out of the penitentiary, resisting arrest, two escapes, fleeing from a peace officer, evading arrest, and misdemeanor thefts.
DRUGS AND/OR ALCOHOL - There was evidence of possible alcohol use connected with the instant offense.
David Hicks had previous convictions for aggravated assault and burglary, kidnapping and fleeing from a police officer. He had been on parole for just 8 months when he raped and murdered his own grandmother. Ocolor Hegger was 87 years old and was sexually assaulted and then beaten to death by her grandson, Hicks on April 25, 1988. The murder occurred at her home near Teague, Texas. Ocolor was killed by being beaten in the head with 8 to 10 blows with a ball-peen hammer. A neighbor found Ocolor Hegger sprawled on the kitchen floor of her small frame house in Teague on the morning of April 26, 1988. Her head was crushed, her blood splashed onto the walls. "It's the most vicious case I've ever tried,'' said Freestone County District Attorney Bob Gage. "It was absolutely sickening.''
On death row, Hicks continued to insist he is innocent. "I've got to get my name back,'' he said recently. Hicks was an unemployed 26-year-old in 1988, released from jail and hanging around the rural community where he grew up. There was a highway nearby and not much else. Hicks and his cousin Lester dropped by his grandmother's house on the night of the murder. Lester handed Mrs. Hegger some money, settling a debt between the two. Then the cousins took off, leaving their grandmother watching television in her housecoat. Later that night, prosecutors believe, Hicks returned to Mrs. Hegger's house with plans to steal the money. Instead, he beat the elderly woman unconscious and left her for dead in the bedroom, Gage said. Hicks spent that evening drinking beer with his cousin and three friends. He left after a few hours, but returned to his grandmother's house on the way home, Gage said. "She'd dragged herself to the kitchen,'' Gage said. "I think she was laying there injured for two or three hours before he came back to check.'' Hicks then raped the elderly woman, beat her viciously and shattered her skull with a wooden doorstop, Gage said.
DNA tests revealed Hicks' semen in his grandmother's body and smeared on her robe. Introducing genetic material as courtroom evidence was still a revolutionary technique in 1989, when Hicks was found guilty of the murder. His conviction set off a flurry of articles in scientific journals. DNA was inconclusive in Hicks' case, some scientists argued, because his hometown was inbred and isolated, and because he shared some genetic patterns with his grandmother. Those arguments were silenced last year, when a Waco judge agreed to reevaluate the evidence. For the second time, scientists pointed to Hicks. The DNA match was even more conclusive. "So we're not hearing any more about his innocence,'' Gage said. "They dropped all that.'' However, some supporters still claimed he was innocent and the DNA match was related to voodoo.
Fight the Death Penalty in the USA
David Hicks, 38, 00-01-20, Texas
A man was executed Thursday for beating his elderly grandmother, then returning to her house, raping her and fatally shattering her skull. David Hicks was 26 and recently released from jail when he left 88-year-old Ocolor Hegger for dead, her skull shattered with a wooden doorstop, a prosecutor said. Semen found at the scene was matched to Hicks. A neighbor found Mrs. Hegger sprawled on the kitchen floor of her small frame house in Teague on the morning of April 26, 1988.
Hicks and a cousin went to Mrs. Hegger's house on the night of the murder because the cousin owed her money, Freestone County District Attorney Bob Gage said. The pair left her watching television, but Hicks returned to rob Mrs. Hegger. He beat her and left her in the bedroom, Gage said, then spent the evening drinking beer with friends before returning. "I think she was laying there injured for 2 or 3 hours before he came back to check," Gage said. Hicks raped Mrs. Hegger and severely beat her. He continued to assert his innocence in an interview late last year. "I've got to get my name back," he said.
Introducing genetic material as courtroom evidence was a revolutionary technique in 1989, when Hicks went on trial. His conviction touched off a flurry of articles in scientific journals. DNA was inconclusive in Hicks' case for a variety of reasons, some scientists argued. A Waco judge agreed to re-evaluate the evidence. For the 2nd time, the DNA test pointed to Hicks.
Hicks becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 202nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982.
(Sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)
I'm a death row prisoner in Texas with about 6 weeks to live. My execution date is set for 1/20/00. I learned of my execution date in September from the Unit Chaplain. I learned of my 5th Circuit Appeal being denied in August from another prisoner here. I do not have a lawyer, and the lawyer "of record" has not been in contact with me now for over six months. No letters, no phone calls, nothing! I am unable to contact him by any means, even in light of my serious date for next month. Six months, six months without any word at all from the lawyer "of record".
I phoned the Texas Defender Service and made this matter known to Jim Marcus and several other individuals at that particular office. I phoned them three times, the last resulting in them simply telling me that there is nothing they can do. Now I read this essay in your paper about how much they care, etc. Well, I'm a living example that people are using the suffering and pain of death row prisoners for their own personal gains. The lawyer who has vanished from my connection does not give a damn about my life. This is obvious.
Certain people don't want to consider claims of innocence anymore. Even some lawyers. Evidence found at the crimes scene over ten years ago that establishes my innocence is constantly being neglected and ignored. Witnesses with testimony that corroborates the evidence found at the crime scene and helps establish my innocence in a concrete manner are being intimidated and threatened by the very people who committed the crime. The latest series or brutal assaults, threats, and intimidations were inflicted upon my wife, who is a valuable witness in this case. The police aren't going to do anything because they think I'm guilty anyway. She's had her throat cut, teeth knocked out, she's been beaten against the head with the butt of a gun, her jaw sliced, and her lips busted. All of this is taking place by members of the "Branch" family to keep her from testifying on my behalf.
I have made these facts known to all that I possibly know, but does anyone care? Hardly not, because with the testimony she has that helps prove my innocence, why isn't someone doing something to preserve it? Why hasn't this evidence located at the crime scene been tested and entered into my appeal? this is exactly why Texas is able to get away with executing so many people so swiftly. Here I sit on death row with evidence of my innocence but can't find anyone caring enough to take out the time to look into my claims, not a lawyer anyway. I have been pleading and pleading for someone who cares, especially a caring lawyer, to look into my claims so they can establish for themselves whether or not I'm innocent. No one cares, regardless of what their pre-formed speeches may indicate. I have not been able to find one Texas organization to help me, or to even look into my allegations. It's a sad day when Texas lawyers can go to other countries and talk about how horrible the justice system is when they refuse to even help those with concrete proof on their innocence. In their own backyard. Because no one cares for or about me, David Hicks, evidence of my innocence is going to die right along with me.
DAVID'S ORIGINAL PENPAL REQUEST
I come to you today with a very heavy heart. Is there anyone out there with the time and resources who would be willing to come and visit me? I have struggled this ordeal for over ten years alone and without family support, and now it seems that the end to my life has come. I now dread even waking up to face another day inside this place because nothing seems to matter anymore. Whats the use in trying anymore, whats the use for anything now that such bad news has come my way. I haven't been receiving visits from anyone, except for the ones from my lawyer, which are very scarce. I would at least like to have some type of excitement in my life for the last months I have to live, and I would be very thankful if you could find someone who would be willing to come down and see me before I am executed. I am 36 years old, black, and a guy who loves the outdoors. I have no feelings today, none that would authentically express the way I feel inside today. It is a very numbing feeling to have received this news, so many questions do I have, but no answers to satisfy my mind as to what's happening to me.
All of my dreams have once again been shattered. The dream of ever being free again, the dream of finally having life to live and enjoy the many things that the world has to offer. I now look back on my life and try to find what I could have done so serious that would warrant this type of fate, but I can find nothing. We read so many things, and we think we understand whats being said. Well, I can tell you that I know what it feels like to have a lifeless soul. Today, life has been taken away from me completely. For over 10 years, I have been fighting this matter, this senseless and wrongful conviction, hoping that in the end justice would come my way. But in a land where justice is dead and the constitution is upside down I have received the short end of justice, wondering how I could have been convicted of this crime from the start. I am tired today, I am mentally exhausted because the life seems to have been sucked out of me at this point. Well I won't take up anymore of your time today, I just wanted to send in this request to see if you could help me locate someone willing to come and visit me. Thank you for your time and understanding, and with best regards, I remain
David Hicks (http://members.tripod.com/~PrisonPals/David_Hicks.html)
The following is a letter from David Hicks that he asked me to send to everyone who took the time to sign his guestbook.
I hope this communication finds you well and in good health. It's not so good down this way for me. I read your guest book entry and although I am not bale to reply personally in the same manner, through the help of Connie, I contact you today. I am really having a difficult time here in Texas. Evidence found at the crime scent during the time I was in jail that consists of a hammer with traces of blood on it, a large size syringe containing traces of human bodily fluids, and foreign body hair, all to this very day have been overlooked and ignored by those representing me. I'm not an attorney, true enough, but I do know that this case has taken a path that's totally out of line with what the truth is about what happened in this case. Those who have handled my appeals thus far are doing what they think is best and what they have done has done nothing but led me closer to my death.
DNA evidence and DNA alone is what has linked me to this crime. And since that seems to be the case, everyone has stopped there. No one wants to explore facts as to how and why my DNA came to be found at the crimes scene in the first place. Several pieces of my clothing.. pants and shoes... were introduced during trial by the prosecutor as being the items worn by me when the crime allegedly took place. The prosecutor even said that blood was found on those items. I challenged the prosecutor and even my paltry court appointed lawyers to have those items tested also but no one has taken me seriously enough to have any testing preformed on those items at all. Why am I being denied the opportunity to have this evidence tested if it could possibly support my claims of innocence? It has been over 10 years since this evidence was found but not one single person has bothered to consider it, or bring this matter up on my appeal.
My family has been trying to contact the lawyer but he will not return any of their calls. It has been 6 months now since the lawyer has been in contact with me and my constant efforts of trying to reach him by phone have all been fruitless. Even in light of my serious execution date, the lawyer refuses t contact me by any means. Witnesses with potentially valuable and helpful information about this case have also found it very difficult to contact this attorney.
Two cells from me, there's another guy with an execution date. We're in the same recreation group, and we're at the same serious stages of our appeals. We discuss legal issues about our situation at length. Last month, he phoned his lawyer 4 times, his lawyer being the initiator of 2 of those calls. His lawyer has been to see him twice last month alone.
His legal team are keeping him aware of the status of his case, of his LIFE. Me... I have not heard anything from my attorney in 6 months now! My case was denied in the 5th Circuit on 8/23/99. I had to learn of that news from another prisoner, and when the courts set my execution date, I had to learn of that information from the Prison Chaplain. All of this serious information has come to me from other sources that the one who is supposed to be representing me! And people wonder why I want to give up. At this stage, this critical stage of my appeal, I have been getting nothing but a lot of indifference from the attorney. Another month has gone and I still have heard nothing from him.
I'm just tired. Tired of all these legal games, with me being used as some type of pawn. The search for the truth about what happened in this case has now been set aside and is no longer a part of this situation. Since the DNA purports to link me to the crime, that's all the legal heads care bout. They refuse to listen or consider anything else. The right to search for truth implies also a duty. But, the fact of the matter in this case is that what people have recognized to be true... (and it seems this is an attitude of the lawyer supposedly handling my case) they are containing to conceal. In my case, people have all simply surrendered to the test results.
I don't know what can be done now, if anything, to save my life. But, as I mentioned, All the evidence found at the crime scene might have the potential to same me, coupled with witness testimony, has been and continues to be disregarded. What has happened to this evidence and why are lawyers ignoring it? These are some of the pressing questions I have, but receive no answer to them at all from the lawyer ro anyone else. I simply cannot understand why no one thinks it's important enough to have this new evidence tested if it could possibly help same my life! The lawyer continues to ignore me on this matter.
Sincerely, David
ABOLISH Archives (San Antonio Express-News)
The death chamber here is equipped with 2 witness rooms - one for the family of the condemned killer, one for the family of the murder victims. At tonight's scheduled execution, there will only be one family. Whether David Hicks' kin will come to watch him die remains to be seen. Hicks is set to receive a lethal injection tonight for raping and bludgeoning his 88-year-old grandmother to death in 1988.
A neighbor found Ocolor Hegger sprawled on the kitchen floor of her small frame house in Teague on the morning of April 26, 1988. Her head was crushed, her blood splashed onto the walls. "It's the most vicious case I've ever tried," said Freestone County District Attorney Bob Gage. "It was absolutely sickening." On Jan. 11, the 87th Judicial District Court denied Hicks' writ of habeas relief. An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court still is pending. Hicks is to be the 202nd condemned killer to be put to death in Texas since capital punishment resumed in December 1982. His would be the 3rd execution this year.
On death row, Hicks continued to insist he is innocent. "I've got to get my name back," he said recently. Hicks was an unemployed 26-year-old in 1988, released from jail and hanging around the rural community where he grew up. There was a highway nearby and not much else.
Hicks, along with his cousin Lester Busby, dropped by his grandmother's house on the night of the murder. Busby handed Mrs. Hegger some money, settling a debt between the two. Then the cousins took off, leaving their grandmother watching television in her housecoat. Later that night, prosecutors believe, Hicks returned to Mrs. Hegger's house with plans to steal the money. Instead, he beat the elderly woman unconscious and left her for dead in the bedroom, Gage said. Hicks spent that evening drinking beer with his cousin and 3 friends. He left after a few hours, but returned to his grandmother's house on the way home, Gage said.
"She'd dragged herself to the kitchen," Gage said. "I think she was laying there injured for 2 or 3 hours before he came back to check." Hicks then raped the elderly woman, beat her viciously and shattered her skull with a wooden doorstop, Gage said.
DNA tests revealed Hicks' semen in his grandmother's body and smeared on her robe. Introducing genetic material as courtroom evidence was still a revolutionary technique in 1989, when Hicks was found guilty of the murder. His conviction set off a flurry of articles in scientific journals. DNA was inconclusive in Hicks' case, some scientists argued, because his hometown was inbred and isolated, and because he shared some genetic patterns with his grandmother. Those arguments were silenced last year, when a Waco judge agreed to reevaluate the evidence. For the 2nd time, scientists pointed to Hicks. The DNA match was conclusive. "
So we're not hearing any more about his innocence," Gage said. "They dropped all that."
David Hicks: Executed on January 20, 2000
I'm a death row prisoner in Texas with about 6 weeks to live. My execution date is set for 1/20/00. I learned of my execution date in September from the Unit Chaplain. I learned of my 5th Circuit Appeal being denied in August from another prisoner here. I do not have a lawyer, and the lawyer "of record" has not been in contact with me now for over six months. No letters, no phone calls, nothing! I am unable to contact him by any means, even in light of my serious date for next month. Six months, six months without any word at all from the lawyer "of record".
I phoned the Texas Defender Service and made this matter known to Jim Marcus and several other individuals at that particular office. I phoned them three times, the last resulting in them simply telling me that there is nothing they can do. Now I read this essay in your paper about how much they care, etc. Well, I'm a living example that people are using the suffering and pain of death row prisoners for their own personal gains. The lawyer who has vanished from my connection does not give a damn about my life. This is obvious.
Certain people don't want to consider claims of innocence anymore. Even some lawyers. Evidence found at the crimes scene over ten years ago that establishes my innocence is constantly being neglected and ignored. Witnesses with testimony that corroborates the evidence found at the crime scene and helps establish my innocence in a concrete manner are being intimidated and threatened by the very people who committed the crime. The latest series or brutal assaults, threats, and intimidations were inflicted upon my wife, who is a valuable witness in this case. The police aren't going to do anything because they think I'm guilty anyway. She's had her throat cut, teeth knocked out, she's been beaten against the head with the butt of a gun, her jaw sliced, and her lips busted. All of this is taking place by members of the "Branch" family to keep her from testifying on my behalf.
I have made these facts known to all that I possibly know, but does anyone care? Hardly not, because with the testimony she has that helps prove my innocence, why isn't someone doing something to preserve it? Why hasn't this evidence located at the crime scene been tested and entered into my appeal? this is exactly why Texas is able to get away with executing so many people so swiftly. Here I sit on death row with evidence of my innocence but can't find anyone caring enough to take out the time to look into my claims, not a lawyer anyway. I have been pleading and pleading for someone who cares, especially a caring lawyer, to look into my claims so they can establish for themselves whether or not I'm innocent. No one cares, regardless of what their pre-formed speeches may indicate. I have not been able to find one Texas organization to help me, or to even look into my allegations. It's a sad day when Texas lawyers can go to other countries and talk about how horrible the justice system is when they refuse to even help those with concrete proof on their innocence. In their own backyard. Because no one cares for or about me, David Hicks, evidence of my innocence is going to die right along with me.
David Hicks