Execution Report: Kevin Zimmerman

Kevin Lee Zimmerman, 42, was executed by lethal injection on 21 January 2004 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder and robbery of a 33-year-old man.

On 23 October 1987, Zimmerman, then 26, arrived at a Beaumont motel with George Weber, 22, and Kaye Gonzales, 28. At the motel, they met Leslie Gilbert Hooks. Hooks had some drinks with the group, then they went together to the fair. After the fair, they returned to the motel. There, in Hooks' room, Zimmerman and Weber began stabbing Hooks. Zimmerman took Hooks' wallet and gave it to Weber. Next, Zimmerman, Weber, and Gonzales went to a hospital, where Zimmerman received treatment for a knife wound.

Hooks died from 31 stab wounds.

Zimmerman was subsequently arrested and jailed. While in jail, he wrote numerous letters to Weber and to the district attorney. In these letters, Zimmerman admitted to killing and robbing Hooks and mentioned being stabbed in the arm while killing him.

Kaye Gonzales testified that after the group returned from the fair, Zimmerman and Hooks began arguing about something that had happened at the fair. Suddenly, she testified, Zimmerman "picked up a knife and stabbed him in his shoulder." Gonzales testified that she then went into the bathroom, and when she came back out, both Zimmerman and Weber were stabbing Hooks, who was yelling, "Don't kill me."

Zimmerman had arrests in Louisiana for reckless driving, theft, forgery, possession of marijuana, battery, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, criminal trespassing, carrying a concealed weapon, disturbing the peace, threatening bodily injury, resisting arrest, fleeing from officers, auto theft, and possession of cocaine. He had at least one three-year prison sentence, but information on dates of incarceration and release were not available for this report.

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