Execution Report: Thomas Mason

Thomas Wayne Mason, 48, was executed by lethal injection on 12 June in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of his mother-in-law and her mother.

Prosecutors believe that Mason was upset about his separation from his wife when he showed up at the home of Marsha Yvonne Brock, 55, with a 12-gague shotgun in October 1991. Brock called 911 and screamed "Help me!" three times before Mason shot her and Sybil Mares Dennis, 80, in the head at close range.

Mason was arrested the next day in Tennessee after telling a nephew and a daughter about the shootings. "I don't know what the big deal is, over just getting rid of a mother-in-law," he told officers.

Two months earlier, police had placed Brock's home under surveillance after she reported that Mason had threatened to burn it down. At his trial, Mason testified that two weeks before the shooting, he took his estranged wife, Melinda Mason, hostage and held her for 5½ hours at gunpoint.

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