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Star Texas football player turned serial killer fights execution

Garcia Glenn White's lawyers argue that his intellectual disabilities and prolonged use of crack cocaine were responsible for the 1989 murders of 16-year-old twins Annette and Bernette Edwards in Houston

A star football player turned serial killer named Garcia Glenn White is scheduled to be executed in Texas this week for the murders of 16-year-old identical twin sisters. This is the country's sixth execution in 11 days.

But White's lawyers argue that his mental deficits – coupled with persistent use of crack cocaine – are more to blame than White, who was described by those who knew him as a gentle giant whose life was lost due to football injuries Drug addiction got out of hand at work and a resulting accident.

“Glenn was the nicest person I knew,” a friend named Ray Manuel wrote about White, according to court documents obtained by USA TODAY. “Glenn cried easily,” his younger sister Monica Garrett wrote. And his older brother Alfred White Jr. said: “He was the biggest wimp you could ever find.”

The white man they describe couldn't be further from the white man who confessed to killing five people, including a Houston mother named Bonita Edwards and her identical twin daughters, just a day after her 16th birthday and a few weeks before Christmas Annette and Bernette Edwards in 1989.

The Edwards' bodies were covered in stab wounds at various stages of their clothing, and there was strong evidence that Bernette had been sexually abused, according to court documents. Their murders remained unsolved for six years.

“Five people murdered in three separate cases, including two teenage girls, is simply too much carnage to ignore and is the type of case for which the death penalty is appropriate,” said Josh Reiss, District Attorney of Harris County, told USA TODAY.

As White's execution approaches Tuesday, USA TODAY looks back at the 35-year-old crime and what led a man with a once-promising future down a path lined with crack and blood.

What was Garcia Glenn White convicted of?

In total, White confessed to killing five people in three separate attacks. The first was Greta Williams, a 27-year-old who was beaten to death in 1989, just months after moving from Chicago to Houston for a new start. Then about a month later there was the Edwards family. And then, in 1995, White beat to death a supermarket clerk and father of seven named Hai Pham. Pham had just moved to the United States from Vietnam with his family nine months earlier and had big dreams for his children, his son told USA TODAY.

Aside from all the murders, prosecutors only pursued charges in the Edwards case, and White was found guilty of the murders of Annette and Bernette.

White had been arrested in connection with Pham's murder when one of White's close friends told police that White had admitted to killing the Edwards family. In addition to White's eventual confession, his DNA was a 99.9999% match to semen found on Bernette, who had a pink shirt wrapped around her neck and through her mouth as a gag, according to court documents.

Among all the disturbing details at the crime scene: a bloody sock found under the Christmas tree.

The subsequent investigation revealed that White and Bonita Edwards had used crack cocaine while their daughters were in their bedroom. White told police that he and Edwards started arguing,

“She reached for a knife and I took the knife and stabbed her,” he said, according to court documents. “Some kids come out. I went into the bedroom after them. … I stabbed one in the bedroom and one in the living room.”

USA TODAY is working to obtain comment from White's attorneys.

Who is Garcia Glenn White?

According to court documents, White, 61, was one of seven siblings who grew up in a loving home.

A poor student and a standout football player, he eventually earned a scholarship and played for Lubbock Christian College before an injury destroyed his knee and ended his athletic career. According to court documents, his girlfriend became pregnant and he dropped out of college.

For a time, White held down a job and helped support his girlfriend and three children, but another devastating injury derailed his professional life, court records say. A friend named Howard Gordon described watching White's downward spiral after the workplace injury as White turned to the escape that drugs provided.

“He had no structure in his life,” Gordon said. “I could see him changing and when I saw the guys he was hanging out with, I knew nothing good was going to come of it.”

Another friend, Ray Manuel, said he was near White while he was using.

“I told Glenn I didn't want my daughter to be exposed to any negative influences and told Glenn he had to make a decision,” Manuel said. “He chose drugs and we parted ways.”

After White's crimes were revealed, Gordon said he couldn't believe it. “Until he became addicted to drugs, there was nothing in him that would ever do that.”

After White was imprisoned for some time, he and Gordon began a correspondence. Gordon noted, “He's gone back to the sweet guy I knew before he did drugs.”

Garcia Glenn White argues he didn't deserve to die

White's lawyers already secured a stay of execution for him one day before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection on January 28, 2015. The effects of cocaine use on the brain.

Now that White's execution has been rescheduled, his lawyers continue to argue that police took advantage of White's mental weakness to force a confession without the presence of an attorney. They also argue that prosecutors worked to eliminate black jurors to stack the odds in their favor.

Judges and courts have rejected all of his recent appeals, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to hold a clemency hearing for him, clearing the way for Texas to release him on Tuesday without intervention from a court or Texas' Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to execute.

Family members of two of White's victims interviewed by USA TODAY say they will attend the execution to witness the death in hopes it will give them closure. This includes Dewanta Washington, whose sister White confessed to killing.

Washington said, “My sister will not be truly free until he is executed until he pays his debts.”

This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Garcia Glenn White. Jail and court records list him as Garcia Glen White, but his attorney says that is incorrect and USA TODAY obtained a handwritten letter in which White spelled his name as Glenn.

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