Houston man executed for murder of twin girls

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – On Tuesday, the state of Texas carried out the execution of Garcia Glen White, 61, at the Huntsville Correctional Unit.

White was sentenced to death for the 1989 murders of 16-year-old twin girls. However, White was connected to a total of five murders and confessed to them.

“I apologize and I am sorry for all the pain I have caused,” White said during his closing statement and before singing the hymn “I Trust in God.”

According to court records, White's first victim was Greta Williams in 1989. White said he hit Williams several times during an argument about money and then curled her up on a rug. In December 1989, White stabbed Bonita Edwards during an argument and then killed her twin daughters, Annette and Bernette, when they came out of their rooms to see what had happened to their mother.

The murders remained unsolved until 1995. White was arrested and accused of beating Hai Pham to death during a robbery at his supermarket. Pham had moved to the United States with his wife and five children nine months before the murder. White eventually confessed to all the murders.

“Glen, how come it’s 1995 and this all happened in November 1989? “How come you never, how come you never came forward and told anyone?” a Houston police detective asked White during his 1995 confession.

“I don’t know,” White replied.

“(Did) these girls deserve to die?” the detective asked.

“No sir, they didn’t,” White said.

“Then how come you didn't come forward sooner and tell us what happened?” the detective asked.

“I was scared, man, I was scared, OK, I was scared,” White replied.

Five members of Williams' family and two members of Pham's family witnessed White's execution but declined to make a public statement. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg spoke on her behalf.

“The victims and their families will never be healed by the executions, but at least the legal process will finally come to a conclusion,” Ogg said. “The suffering endured by the surviving family members is simply unspeakable. They waited until the appeal, after the appeal, after the appeal.”

White claimed that his diminished mental capacity and “cocaine psychosis” should have excluded him from the death penalty. Ogg said White was educated and “knew what he was doing.”

“There was no doubt about his guilt, it was not a circumstantial case. There are brutal stabbings, beatings; Things that caused great pain to these victims in their final moments of life,” Ogg said.

Ogg said White's attorney also asked her for a meeting to plead on his client's behalf, claiming he was a redeemed man.

“He explained that Garcia White had done good things on death row; “We spread the word of God to other condemned inmates,” Ogg said. “I took that into account, but it simply couldn't outweigh the slaughtered families and their surviving family members who still wanted him to serve the death penalty.”

After the execution, Ogg also said that court records showed that White was initially considered a prime suspect in Williams' murder at the time she was killed because he lived next door, but a lack of evidence led to him being charged “not.” “invoiced” was the jury.