Halfway2sane

charles victor thompson was born on june 13th, 1970 was executed at 55 years of age at the huntsville unit in texas at 6:50 pm Ct on january 28th, 2026, marking the first u.s. execution of 2026. he had been sentenced to death in april 1999 for the murers of his former girlfriend, glenda dennise hayslip and her new boyfirned, darren keith cain, which occurred on april 30th, 1998, in tomball, a houston suburb. thompson had previously gained nationwide attention for a 2005 jail escape, making him the only deah row inmate to successfully escape a u.s. correctional facility in the 21st century.

on the night of april 29th, 1998, police were called to glenda’s apartment due to a domestic disturbance involving charles and darren. officers escorted charles out, but he returned three hours later with a firearm, kicked in the door and shot darren four times in the neck and chest, killing him instantly. following the incapacitation of darren, charles focused his attention to glenda. he reloaded his gun and reportedly said, “i can shoot you too, bitch.” charles then shot glenda in the face. the bullet entered through her cheek, destroyed her dentures and nearly severed her tongue. thankfully, glenda’s thirteen year old son, wade hayslip, was at shool at the time of the shooting.

after the shootings, charles disposed of the murder weapon in a nearby creek. he then went to a friends house, diane zernia to which he told her in detail what he did. he then contacted his father who facilitated his surrender to the police later that morning.

glenda owned her own nail salon and worked six days a week as a nail technician. glenda was divorced from her son’s father since 1996 when he was eleven years old. his father felix hayslip was a mechanic.

following charles arrest he stood trial for capital murder. the death penalty was requested by the prosecution. to secure the death sentence, the state was required to prove e would be dangerous in the future. so, the prosecution introduced evidence of a solicitation to murder plot that charles initiated while in pretrial detention. while he was awaiting trial, he approached inmates reid and humphrey to arrange the murder of his friend diane zernia, whom he identified as the only witness capable of linking him to the homicides. law enforcement was tipped off by reid and orchestrated an undercover operation where an investigator posed as a hitman. he met with charles in a visiting boothe and wore a wire to record their conversation. charles offered him $1500 to retrieve the murder weapon from cypress creek and to murder diane. charles displayed a hand-drawn map against the glass of the visitors booth depicting her address and the seapon’s location and provided detailed descriptions of dian’s family and vehicles to facilitate the hit.

the defense tried to claim that charles did not kill glenda…not saying he didn’t shoot her but he did not kill her. they said she died as a result of medical negligence during her hospitalization. they said medical staff failed to correctly place a nasotracheal tube and then failed to monitor her breathing, allowing her to fall into a coma. they argued that by her family removing her from life support one week after the shooting constituted an intervening cause that absolved him of criminal responsibility for her heath.

but, a jury found that charles actions were the primary cause of death and convicted him of captal murder and sentenced him to death on april 14th, 1999.

in 2005 he was granted a retrial without that investigator who posed as a hitman as evidence. so to provide evidence of charles violent tendencies, the state called a different jailhouse informant. this person testified that while he was detained with charles in 1998, charles solicited him to murder a hitlist of potential state witnesses. he said the list included diane zernia as well as other witnesses, with instructions to either kill them or pursuade them not to be there. on october 28, 2005 a new jury sentenced him to death.

gollowing his sencond death sentence, charles was held in the harris county jail pending transfer to livingston. on november 3rd, 2005, he executed a brazen escape that exposed systemic negligence within the facility. he had smuggled several items into his cell using a legal binder, which inmates are permitted to keep. these items included a handcuff key, a fake identification badge, and a set of covilian clothes consisting of khaki pants, a dark blue shirt, and white tennis shoes. he later claimed that a sergeant had found a previous set of smuggled clothes but confiscated them as contraband without reporting the incident to the distric attorney’s office. on the afternoon of november 3rd he was taken to a visitor’s room for what he claimed was a meeting with his attorne. once alone, he slipped out of his handcuffs and changed out of his orange prison jumpsuit and into the smuggled civilian clothes. he then walked toward the exit, flashing his fake id badge, which claimed he was a state investigator with the attorney general’s office, to at least four jail employees. he bluffed his way past the final guards at the front door by walking calmly. he took a freight train to east texas, where he stayed in an open boxcar, describing his experience as an adventure where he felt dirty and happy. he said, “i got to smell the trees, feel the wind in my hair, grass under m feet and see the stars at night. it took me straight back to mhy childhood being outside on a summer night.” heeventually reached shreveport, louisiana where he stole a bivycle and used money he got from good samaritans by posing as a hurricane katrina evacuee. his excape ended at a payphone outside a liquor store, on november 6th, acting on a tip, police found him intoxicated while he was attempting to call friends overseas to arrange a wir transfer for a planned flight to canada. he was then extradited back to texas.

he exhaused his eight appeals and on september 11th, 2025 he received his death warrant, scheduling him to be executed by lethal injection on january 28th, 2026.

charles called the killings a crime of passion. he said, “there were no winners in this situation. it’s tragic what happened. i regret it. i have remorse. i want people to be able to heal and move past it. i pray for them and i’ve asked the to forgive me.”

glenda’s son wade is now a father of three boys and lives in chicago and works in business development. he said his family never had a lot of money growing up, but that his mom prioritized paying for private school for spiritual and educational reasons. there were times we knew when she wrote checks that they were probably going to bounce. but somehow she managed. she worked hard and made sure they never went hungry. he said his mother was compassionate and humble and taught him to always look out for others. he recalled how he once told his mom that he was going to hang out with a new friend who was an outcast at school because of a severe medical condition. she started cryig, she was so proud of him. he also recalled a bad argument he once had with his mom. wade yelled that he was going to run away and then proceeded to climb thirty feet up a tree. of course i was giving her heart palpitations and she’s begging me to come down and she’s in tears apologizing even though i was the one in the wrong. he came down nearly five hours later and was still pouting in his bed when his mom went in. he said he was mad for a completely ridiculouus reason. and instead of trying to get at him she went in and laid down in his bed and they talked it through. she was letting himknow it was ok.

he said his father was also heartbroken after she was killed, saying they were still in love but just couldn’t handle living togther. wade said the day of the funeral they had an alone moment while they watched them lower the casket in the ground. they sat there thirty minutes while his dad just cried.

his dad died in 2009, one month before he would have become a grandfather. so, both his parents missed out on that. he said his mother would have been the spoiling type.

interestingly, or not, charles made the news when the houston chronicle reported a story that he sought companionship by starting his own website not long ater he landed on death row. he wrote: i am a firm believer that everyone needs someone in their life and i need you. i am a very interesting person with a lot of character and i just need someone to share that with.

he had over five hundred supporters on a facebook page called friends of charles victor thompson. the page is run by a woman in wales who had visited him repeatedly over the years and had raised money for his legal defense by posting t-shirts for sale and directing people to his patreon account.

wade refutes charles repeated claims that he has asked for foregiveness and said his pain has been compounded over the years by all the press attention on charles and by occassional hate mail he gets from people who apparently sympathise with charles. quoting what one woman told him,
always know that your mom was a cheating whore.” wade said, “that’s part of the grieving process. i’ve mourned and grieved her loss, but it’s still been an active thing because he’s been so visible in the public eye. because of his visibility, it’s been tough to move forward. that has overshadowed who she was and what she represented.”

he did travel from chicago to houston to be among the witnesses to the execution. he said it would not bring him closure, but that chales life is the only thing he has left to offer in accountability for the lives he destroyed. it’s more of the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one. he said, “i’m looking forward to the new one.”

prior to his execution, charles had a last meal consisting of scrambled eggs, grape jelly, oatmeal, applesauce, biscuits, fried chicken, pinto beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, sliced bread and swirl pudding along with a punch and water.