Kenneth Parr was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Linda Malek
According to court documents Kenneth Parr and his accomplice would break into the home of Linda Malek who was sexually assaulted and shot twice in the head. Parr would rob the home and vehicle before fleeing
Kenneth Parr would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Kenneth Parr would be executed on August 15 2007 by lethal injection
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When Was Kenneth Parr Executed
Kenneth Parr was executed on August 15 2007
Kenneth Parr Case
Condemned inmate Kenneth Parr failed to follow through on threats to harm Texas corrections officials and quietly went to his death for the rape and fatal shooting of a woman during a break-in at her Southeast Texas home nearly 10 years ago.
Parr, 27, had only a brief final statement Wednesday evening as he received a lethal dose of drugs, responding “Yeah” when asked by the warden if he had anything to say. “I just want to tell my family I love y’all, man,” he said. “Keep your head up, y’all.”
Nine minutes later, he was pronounced dead. Several distraught relatives, including his mother, were overcome with grief as they watched him die and sobbed uncontrollably. On another separate side of the chamber, relatives of his victim, including her mother, watched quietly through a window. Parr never looked at them.
His threats of violence also never materialized. “From all accounts, he was not a problem, not aggressive or assaultive with the staff,” Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said. “He made his way willingly to the execution chamber. We’re very fortunate.”
Parr was only a few days past his 18th birthday when authorities said he and a younger brother kicked in the door of 30-year-old Linda Malek’s trailer home, stole a television and VCR and video game, among other things, raped the woman and then shot her to death. Her children — 8 and 6 years old at the time — were in bed with her during the attack.
The execution was the 20th this year in Texas, the nation’s busiest death penalty state, and the 399th overall since Texas resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982. The 400th is set for next week.
The last appeals to block the execution were rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court about two hours before he died.
Parr already was on probation after juvenile burglary and assault convictions when he was arrested for the Malek slaying. The woman and her children lived across the street from the apartment where Parr and his brother were staying with a friend. After convicted of her murder and sent to death row, prison records show he continued to pile up disciplinary infractions. In the weeks preceding his execution, officials took the rare step of putting him off-limits for media interviews because he had threatened to harm prison officers.
Steven Reis, the Matagorda County district attorney who prosecuted Parr, said that was no surprise. “His history of violence is clearly part of the reason the jurors chose to answer the capital murder questions as they did,” he said. “They were certain that he posed a danger to anyone with whom he would come into contact.”
The Jan. 21, 1998, slaying was the only homicide that year in Matagorda County, about 100 miles southwest of Houston. The timing — just days after Parr’s 18th birthday — is significant because the U.S. Supreme Court has barred execution for those convicted of crimes committed when under 18. Parr’s lawyers raised the age issue in earlier appeals but lost.
Parr’s younger half-brother, Michael Jiminez, also was convicted in the case and is serving a life sentence. He was 17 at the time. At his trial, evidence shows he wrote a rap song about killing Malek and how he planned to kill again. “That was pretty devastating,” Stan McGee, one of his trial lawyers, recalled.
Some of the items taken from Malek’s home were found in the apartment where Parr and his brother were staying. Their fingerprints were found at the murder scene. DNA tied Parr to the rape. The murder weapon was hidden in an air conditioning vent at the apartment.
After the intruders left, Malek’s 8-year-old daughter called her grandparents to report the attack. She later would testify at Parr’s capital murder trial.
According to another witness’ testimony, Jiminez and Parr, who did not testify, also planned to kill the children but the rusty gun wouldn’t work. “I thank God for having intervened by causing a rifle to jam before those two murderers could kill two helpless children,” Reis said.
The next Texas inmate scheduled to die is Johnny Ray Conner, facing injection next week for the shooting death of Houston grocery store owner Kathyanna Nguyen during an attempted holdup in 1998.