Execution Report: Edgar Tamayo

Edgar Arias Tamayo, 46, was executed by lethal injection on 22 January 2014 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a police officer who was arresting him for robbery.

On 31 January 1994 in southwest Houston, a man flagged down Houston police officer Guy Gaddis outside a nightclub, saying he had just been robbed. Officer Gaddis, 24, detained Tamayo, then 26, and another man in a parking lot. He searched Tamayo and found the robbery victim's watch. He then handcuffed the two suspects and placed them in the back seat of his patrol car, with Tamayo seated directly behind him. While they were on their way to jail, Gaddis stopped at a convenience store to make a telephone call to the district attorney's office. Tamayo then revealed to the other suspect that he had a gun in his waistband. He was able to remove the pistol from his waistband despite the handcuffs. When Gaddis returned to the vehicle and began driving away, Tamayo turned around in his seat, facing the rear. He then fired six shots through the plexiglas divider, hitting Gaddis three times in the back of the head. Gaddis's car ran off the road into a house. Tamayo then kicked out a broken window and fled. He was arrested again several blocks away, still wearing handcuffs. He was also wearing the robbery victim's necklace and carrying his watch.

Officer Gaddis was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.

Tamayo told investigators that he was angry with the officer because he wouldn't allow him to leave his keys with his wife before being transported to jail.

Tamayo was an illegal immigrant from Mexico. He had recently arrived in Texas after spending three years in prison in California for robbery.

A jury convicted Tamayo of capital murder in November 1994 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in December 1996.

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