Charles Tuttle was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Catherine Harris
According to court documents Charles Tuttle was living with Catherine Harris a week prior to the murder however when he could not pay for his share of the bills he was asked to leave. Tuttle would beat Catherine Harris to death with a hammer and then proceeded to rob her before fleeing
Charles Tuttle would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Charles Tuttle would be executed by lethal injection on July 1 1999
Charles Tuttle Photos
Charles Tuttle Case
Charles Tuttle, 35, the former construction worker of Smith County who beat a woman to death while robbing her home, was executed on July 1, 1999.
Tuttle clubbed and murdered Catherine Harris, 42, of Tyler, in the head 10 times and punctured a hole between the eyes with a claw hammer on Feb. 24, 1995. David Landry, Tuttle’s friend and Harris’s nephew, found Harris’s body in her home.
The body was stuffed under a pile of clothes and blankets. Tuttle and Landry had been staying with Harris, but Tuttle was asked to leave when he did not help with the bills.
Tuttle told officials his attempt was to knock Harris out with a blow to the head and rob her. The murder took place when she started screaming. Tuttle hid a bloody towel, hammer and his bloody shirt, stole credit cards and cash from Harris’s purse, then fled in her Dodge Dakota truck.
Tuttle left Tyler to stay with friends and visit family in the Beaumont area.
Police arrested Tuttle Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 28 in his father’s hospital room. When Tuttle was arrested, police found him with a loaded .357-revolver, Harris’s credit cards and truck key.
Trial testimonies concluded that the head and claw parts of the claw hammer were consistent with Harris’s head wounds. Hair fibers were microscopically examined from the bloody towel and Harris’s clothing and concluded to match Tuttle’s DNA. Tuttle appeared coherent and unintoxicated at the time of the arrest.
On Nov. 5, 1997 Tuttle refused his right to an appeal, and on Feb. 17, 1999 he was convicted of capital murder and scheduled for execution on July 1,1999.
Immediately before Tuttle’s execution, he turned to Harris’s family and asked forgiveness. Tuttle died at 6:28 p.m. on July 1, 1999 about seven minutes after the lethal injection.
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