A Texas man is set to become the first person executed in the United States this year, nearly 27 years after escaping custody and being on the run for three days. Charles Victor Thompson was sentenced to death for the fatal shootings of his ex-girlfriend and her new partner back in 1998.

Thompson was convicted for the murders of Glenda Dennise Hayslip, 39, and Darren Keith Cain, 30, which occurred in April 1998 at Hayslip’s apartment located in Tomball, a suburb of Houston.

At 55, Thompson is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville on Wednesday evening.

Prosecutors revealed that Thompson and Hayslip had been in a relationship for about a year, but it ended when his behavior turned increasingly possessive, jealous, and abusive.

Court documents show that on the night of the killings, Thompson confronted Cain at Hayslip’s apartment around 3 a.m. Police intervened and instructed Thompson to leave. However, he returned three hours later and fatally shot both Cain and Hayslip. Cain died immediately, while Hayslip succumbed to her injuries a week later in the hospital.

“The Hayslip and Cain families have waited over twenty-five years for justice to occur,” prosecutors with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office said in court filings.

Thompson’s attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution, arguing Thompson was not allowed to refute or confront the prosecution’s evidence that concluded Hayslip died from a gunshot wound to the face. Thompson’s attorneys have argued Hayslip actually died from flawed medical care she received after the shooting that resulted in severe brain damage sustained from oxygen deprivation following a failed intubation.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied Thompson’s request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty.

“If he had been able to raise a reasonable doubt as to the cause of Ms. Hayslip’s death, he would not be guilty of capital murder,” Thompson’s attorneys said in court filings with the Supreme Court.

Prosecutors said a jury has already rejected the claim and, concluded under state law that Thompson is responsible for Hayslip’s death because it “would not have occurred but for his conduct.”

Hayslip’s family had filed a lawsuit against one of her doctors, alleging medical negligence during her treatment left her brain-dead. A jury in 2002 found in favor of the doctor.

Thompson had his death sentence overturned and had a new punishment trial held in November 2005. A jury again ordered him to die by lethal injection.

“I got to smell the trees, feel the wind in my hair, grass under my feet, see the stars at night. It took me straight back to childhood being outside on a summer night,” Thompson said about his three days on the run during a 2005 interview with the AP. He was arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, while trying to arrange for wire transfers of money from overseas so he could make it to Canada.

If the execution is carried out, Thompson would be the first person put to death this year in the United States. Texas has historically held more executions than any other state, though Florida had the most executions in 2025, with 19.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano: