Glen McGinnis was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Leta Wilkerson
According to court documents seventeen year old Glen McGinnis would enter a dry cleaners where he would fatally shoot Leta Wilkerson and steal $140 from the register
Glen McGinnis would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Glen McGinnis would be executed by lethal injection on January 25 2000
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When Was Glen McGinnis Executed
Glen McGinnis was executed on January 25 2000
Glen McGinnis Case
On the afternoon of August 1, 1990, Homer Burson walked into Wilkins Dry Cleaners in Conroe, Texas, to pick up some cleaning. He waited at the counter, but no one approached to wait on him. He left, then reentered with another customer. Finally, noticing that the cash register was open, Burson walked around the corner of the counter toward the back room of the store where he discovered Leta Wilkerson lying face up on the floor, her eyes open and her body covered with blood. Burson immediately notified the police and called for an ambulance. Wilkerson, who was employed at the cleaners as a clerk, was transported to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival. She had been shot once in the face and three times in the back.
Upon arriving at the scene, investigating officers found spent .25-caliber bullets and bullet casings lying on the floor near where the body was found. Officers also discovered blood on the front counter next to a pile of jeans with the name “McGinnis” written in the pockets. The telephone on the front counter had been left off the hook, objects were in disarray and about $140 was missing from the cash register. Additionally, police were informed that the 1985 silver-gray GMC minivan the victim had driven to work that day was missing. Two individuals picked Glen Charles McGinnis out of a photographic lineup, identifying him as the man they had seen at or near Wilkins Dry Cleaners around the time of the offense.
Late that evening, police found Wilkerson’s minivan abandoned in the parking lot of a nearby shopping center. Between the two front seats of the van, they discovered Wilkerson’s wallet, from which investigators lifted McGinnis’s fingerprint. The following morning, three employees of various businesses in the shopping center where the van was found picked McGinnis out of a photographic lineup as the man they had seen the afternoon before requesting assistance because his van was broken down.
Early on the morning of August 2, 1990, police were dispatched to Williams Square Apartments, just two blocks from Wilkins Dry Cleaners, where McGinnis was thought to be residing with his aunt, Annette McGinnis. Police arrested McGinnis for the capital murder of Leta Wilkerson and transported him to the police station, where they discovered $105 in his possession. Later that morning, police returned to Annette McGinnis’s apartment to search for a .25-caliber weapon. Annette McGinnis told police that her nephew had been living with her in the apartment since July 27, 1990. She also told police that she owned a .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol; however, when she discovered that the gun was not where she had left it, she agreed to let police search the apartment. Police found a .25-caliber Raven semi-automatic pistol in a laundry hamper in the hall closet. Annette McGinnis identified the gun as her own, but stated that she did not know how it had gotten in the laundry hamper. Firearms examiner Russell Johnson testified at trial that shell casings recovered from the scene and bullets recovered from both the victim’s body and the scene had been fired from Annette McGinnis’s gun.
Almost two months after the offense, Annette McGinnis contacted police to inform them she had found a set of keys in her apartment. The keys were later identified as the keys of Leta Wilkerson. In addition, when asked at trial about the jeans found at the cleaners, Annette McGinnis identified them as hers, but testified that she had not taken the jeans to the cleaners. Rather, the jeans had previously been stored away in a closet in her apartment because she did not wear them anymore.
http://www.oag.state.tx.us/newspubs/releases/2000/20000124mcginnisadvsy.htm
