Elroy Chester (June 14, 1969 – June 12, 2013) was an American

serial killer A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A * * * * with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...

who committed five murders in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. He was convicted and sentenced to death for one of the murders, and was executed in 2013.

Crimes

Between 1997 and 1998, a series of burglaries and fatal shootings occurred in

Port Arthur, Texas Port Arthur is a city in Jefferson County within the Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area of the U.S. state of Texas. A small, uninhabited portion extends into Orange County; it is east of Houston. The largest oil refinery in the United Sta ...

. In every case but one, the victims died in their homes during the night. The five people which Chester admitted to killing were: * John Henry Sepeda (78) on Sept. 20, 1997 * Etta Mae Stallings (87) on Nov. 15, 1997 * Cheryl DeLeon (40) on Nov. 20, 1997, she was fatally beaten as she arrived home from work * Albert Bolden Jr. (35) on Dec. 21, 1997, who was his common-law brother-in-law * Willie Ryman III (38) on Feb. 6, 1998, a

firefighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

who tried to defend his nieces from Chester, after he sexually molested them Later his DNA was linked to three rapes, including that of a ten-year-old girl. He also confessed to four non-fatal shootings. After his arrest, he said that he had committed these offenses because he was out of his mind "with hate for white people" due to lingering resentment over an altercation that he had once gotten into with a white employee of the

Texas Department of Criminal Justice The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, ...

Trial

During his trial, Chester made multiple outbursts, threatened the lives of police officers, prison guards, and the families of jurors, and at one point declared, "If I hadn't shot my brother-in-law, I'd still be out there shooting white folks." He was convicted of the murder of Willie Ryman III and the assault of the two nieces. It took the jury only minutes to agree on a death sentence for Chester after he told them he would kill a guard if he was not sentenced to death. The Texas court system ruled that Chester was

legally competent In United States and Canadian law, competence concerns the mental capacity of an individual to participate in legal proceedings or transactions, and the mental condition a person must have to be responsible for his or her decisions or acts. Comp ...

to be executed, despite scoring below 70 on

IQ tests An intelligence quotient (IQ) is a total score derived from a set of standardized tests or subtests designed to assess human intelligence. The abbreviation "IQ" was coined by the psychologist William Stern for the German term ''Intelligenzqu ...

and being previously placed in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Mentally Retarded Offenders Program. In the prosecution's

closing argument A closing argument, summation, or summing up is the concluding statement of each party's counsel reiterating the important arguments for the trier of fact, often the jury, in a court case. A closing argument occurs after the presentation of eviden ...

s, it was argued that his disability was not a sufficient reason to stay his execution. Since Chester was capable of hiding facts and lying to protect his own interests, using masks and gloves, and cutting exterior telephone lines before entering homes to burglarize, he showed persuasively that he was capable of forethought,

planning Planning is the process of thinking regarding the activities required to achieve a desired goal. Planning is based on foresight, the fundamental capacity for mental time travel. The evolution of forethought, the capacity to think ahead, is consi ...

, and complex execution of purpose. Therefore, the court found the evidence insufficient to support the claim that Chester was mentally retarded. In October 2012, the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

refused to hear an appeal from Chester.

Execution

Chester was originally scheduled for execution on April 24, 2013, but, due to an error in the

execution warrant An execution warrant (also called death warrant or black warrant) is a writ that authorizes the execution of a condemned person. An execution warrant is not to be confused with a " license to kill", which operates like an arrest warrant but ...

, the date was pushed back. He was executed on June 12, 2013, at the

Huntsville Unit Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville or Huntsville Unit (HV), nicknamed "Walls Unit", is a Texas state prison located in Huntsville, Texas, United States. The approximately facility, near downtown Huntsville, is operated by the Correctional Ins ...

Huntsville, Texas Huntsville is a city in and the county seat of Walker County, Texas. The population was 45,941 as of the 2020 census. It is the center of the Huntsville micropolitan area. Huntsville is in the East Texas Piney Woods on Interstate 45 and home to ...

, two days before his 44th birthday. He is buried at

Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery The Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery is the main prison cemetery of the U.S. state of Texas, located in Huntsville and operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). The colloquial name for the cemetery is Peckerwood Hill. The name originat ...

In media

In 2013 a full-length documentary titled ''Killing Time'' was made about him and his execution. In 2018 the case was covered by

Investigation Discovery Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Ameri ...

show ''Murder by Numbers'', episode named ''Clown Mask Murders''.

References

External links