CASE HISTORY


CASE OVERVIEW

 

 

Dallas, August 1991 :

 

 A person forces their way into the home of 52 year old Nelda, in Pleasant Grove, Dallas. Nelda Henin' s door is kicked in and her throat is cut.The local police do not find the murderer. Years go by...

 

1997 :

Police received an anonymous phone call accusing David of the murder.

 

March 1999 :

David is convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for a crime that he has always denied committing,

and of which he continues to proclaim his innocence.

 

 

 

CASE HISTORY

 

 

August 25, 1967:

David was born in Dallas. The family later moved to a small town. David had a typical childhood, though life was not easy for his family were not wealthy.

 

David became a hyperactive child. At school, doctors advised his parents to put him under medication, which they did. Later, David’s mother was aware that this treatment acts as a kind of drug, so she decided to stop it. Unfortunately, David’s hyperactivity

 

affected his schoolwork and left him unable to concentrate. As a result, he was put in a special class and later stopped going to school to work full time to help his parents with his needs.

 

Some time later, David left home and worked repairing cars for a disabled person known as "Hook". He became very close to him and took care of him. He also fell in with a group of teenagers who carried out petty offences, for which he spent some time in prison.

 

April 1991:

David just comes out of jail. He is big built (approximately 250 pounds) and has very short, bleached-blonde hair. He meets up with Mandee and have two children.

David’s cousin, Rebecca, has a friend, named Evrin, who is having a love affair with the boyfriend, Gary, of the future victim, Nelda. Evrin is passionately in love with this man, wishing him only for herself, and becomes obsessive.

 

August 1991:

 

Evrin asks David’s cousin, Rebecca, whether she knows someone who could help her to move her things to her previous residence

to David’s Aunt’s home and to kill Nelda. David’s cousin said that David “has not enough guts” to do a hit. During the move, Evrin asks David to kill Nelda. David thinks she is kidding, but she is not. He tells her she is insane and goes back home to tell Mandee the whole story. Some days later, Nelda is killed.

 

 

1995:

David and Mandee break up. They do not get on well anymore.

Mandee’s mother, a drug-addict and alcoholic, is anonymously denounced to the police and placed under arrest. Mandee is angry with David as she believes it was he who informed the police.

 

Mandee meets another man called John C. Still convinced that David denounced her mother to the police, and seeking her revenge against him, Mandee tells her boyfriend that David killed Nelda. John was always jealous and worried that David would come back

and talk Mandee into leaving him and returning with David. It was at the end of August

 

September 1997:

The Dallas police receive an anonymous phone call denouncing David for the murder of Nelda, which occurred 6 years previously. The police interrogate Mandee 3 times. At the end of the third questioning, she claims that David confessed to her of his involvement in the murder. Subsequent to her statements, and after six years of unsuccessful searching for Nelda’s killer, the local police arrest David.

 

December 1997:

 David is charged with capital murder.

 

March 1999:

 Evrin SMITH, having remained silently behind the scenes of the crime, now risks facing the death penalty for involvement in the murder. She therefore denounces David as the culprit in order to save her life.

During the trial, following incoherencies, irregularities and false testimonies (see document: “Procedural History and Trial”), David is condemned to death and transferred to the Ellis Unit, Huntsville. Then, in 2000, he is moved to the Polunsky Unit, Livingston where

he remains now.