Texas Execution Information Center

Execution Report: Terry Edwards

Terry Edwards
Terry Edwards
Executed on 26 January 2017

Terry Darnell Edwards, 43, was executed by lethal injection on 26 January 2017 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of two fast food restaurant employees during a robbery.

On Monday, 8 July 2002, Edwards, then 28, and his cousin, Kirk Darnell Edwards, 31, entered a Subway restaurant in a strip shopping center in Balch Springs, a suburb of Dallas, as the store was opening. They killed manager Tommy Walker, 34, and employee Mickell Goodwin, 26, stole $3,000, and fled. Both victims were shot in the head at close range.

People in an adjacent dental office heard the gunshots and called 9-1-1. Police responded in time to see two men running away, and one of them throwing something into a trash can across the street from the restaurant. That man, Terry Edwards, was arrested. A .380-caliber handgun recovered from the trash can was found to be the murder weapon.

At the time of his arrest, Terry admitted participating in the robbery and acknowledged possession of the murder weapon and the money taken from the store, but he claimed that a man who he knew only as "T-Bone" did the shooting and gave him the gun when they left the store.

Kirk Edwards turned himself in to the Dallas Police Department the next day.

Terry was fired from the same restaurant in June for stealing from the cash register. He had also previously been fired from another Subway location for stealing store funds.

Terry had previous felony convictions for theft and possession of cocaine with intent to deliver. He served about two years of a five-year sentence from 1997 to 1999, then was released on parole. He was still on parole at the time of the killings.

The only defense witness during the guilt-innocense phase of Terry Edwards' trial was Vicki Hall, a state forensic analyst. Hall testified that Terry was tested for gunshot residue at the time of his arrest, and none was found on him.

Texas law allows for a participant in a capital murder to be found guilty and receive the death penalty even if he or she was not the one who inflicted the fatal injury.

Michael Weast testified that he was in a Subway restaurant in Fort Worth on 26 April 2002 when two men came in and began acting suspiciously. One of the men drew a gun and ordered the people behind the counter to lie down while the other man, who Weast identified as Terry Edwards, apparently took the video surveillance tape. As they drove away, they almost ran down a uniformed deputy sheriff who drew his gun and yelled at them to stop.

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