Sometimes a killer doesn’t choose his murder weapon
beforehand, simply using anything that’s readily available. But in the case of
Derrick Charles, the man used EVERYTHING that was available when he killed his
three victims in 2002.
On the day of the murders, Charles illegally entered his
girlfriend’s house and was surprised by the girl’s grandfather. Charles punched
the man repeatedly, beat him with a lamp and some trophies, then strangled him
with the lamp cord. When Charles’s girlfriend and her mother came home, Charles
hit his girlfriend in the face with a car speaker then dropped a TV set on her
head, killing her. He then tried to electrocute the girl’s mother by putting
her in a bathtub full of water and throwing the TV in with her, but when that
plan failed, Charles strangled her with an extension cord.
Charles was executed by the state of Texas tonight, which
chose to skip all the cumbersome appliances and used a simple lethal injection
instead. Because Texas no longer allows special last meal requests, Charles was
given the same food as others in his unit. For his last meal, Derrick Charles
had baked chicken, mashed potatoes, country gravy, carrots, black eyed peas, and
sliced bread, with a choice of water, tea, or punch to drink.
