Elroy Chester

Early life

Chester attended Abraham Lincoln High School in Port Arthur, Texas, where he was placed in special education classes until age 16 and never advanced beyond a third-grade level. He took five IQ tests over his life; four of them, including one at age seven, yielded scores of 70 or lower, with the lowest being 57 on a Vineland Adaptive Behavior Survey taken in October 1987 when he was 18. As an adult, he worked intermittently as a general laborer and briefly as a service worker at a Luby's cafeteria.

His criminal record began in 1987 with a home robbery, followed by a burglary in May of that year. He received 10 years probation with six months shock probation in a Texas Department of Corrections facility. After release in March 1988, he committed two more burglaries in May and was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment in December 1988. Paroled in February 1990, he was detained in March for theft, possession of a criminal instrument, and evading arrest, but released after three days for lack of evidence.

In April 1990 he was arrested for burglary and two counts of aggravated assault, which were dismissed. Further arrests followed in 1991 for carrying a weapon and marijuana possession, and in September 1992 for burglary and aggravated sexual assault. He served four years in prison and was released on mandatory supervision on March 21, 1997.

Crimes

Between August 1997 and February 1998, five months after his parole, Chester committed at least 25 burglaries, five sexual assaults, and ten shootings in Port Arthur, Texas. He confessed to killing five people and to four non-fatal shootings. In all but one case, victims died in their homes at night. During home invasions, he disabled telephone landlines, unscrewed outdoor security lights, and wore a hockey mask or homemade balaclava.

On August 3, 1997, he burglarized Kenneth Risinger's home, stealing a .380 semi-automatic pistol later used in the murders. On August 9, he broke into a home, forced a ten-year-old girl into a closet, tied her up, and sodomized her; he later claimed he was unaware of her age. On August 16, he shot 16-year-old Oscar Morales in the leg and Matthew Horvatich in the shoulder; both survived. On September 20, he murdered 78-year-old John Henry Sepeda during a night burglary, shooting him once in the chest.

On November 15, he fatally shot 87-year-old Etta Mae Stallings and stole a .22 caliber gun, which he used that same evening to fire through a bedroom window, injuring Peggy Johnson and Debra Ferguson and killing a pet dog.

Trial

Chester's trial began in August 1998. He entered a guilty plea and made multiple outbursts, threatening police officers, prison guards, court officials, and jurors' families, and stated, 'If I hadn't shot my brother-in-law, I'd still be out there shooting white folks.' He expressed no regret, calling the crimes 'a whole lot of fun.' He was convicted of murdering Willie Ryman III and assaulting two nieces.

The jury took 11½ minutes to agree on a death sentence after Chester threatened to kill district attorney employees if released and to have 'his homies' kill a police officer and two detectives. The Texas court system ruled him legally competent despite a court-ordered IQ score of 69 and his placement in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Mentally Retarded Offenders Program. The prosecution argued that his ability to hide facts, lie, use masks and gloves, remove serial numbers from firearms, and cut telephone lines showed forethought and planning, making the evidence insufficient to support a claim of mental incompetence.

Assistant district attorney Wayln Thompson described Chester as 'only learning disabled' and 'one of the most dangerous individuals we have ever prosecuted.' In 2007 and 2008, Chester filed habeas corpus writs arguing that his death sentence violated the Eighth Amendment; eleven of thirteen federal and state judges rejected his appeals entirely, and the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal in October 2012.

Did You Know?

• Chester confessed to killing his common-law brother-in-law, Albert Bolden Jr., out of vengeance because Bolden had beaten Chester's sister and humiliated him by arranging a sexual encounter with a transvestite.
• During the February 6, 1998 home invasion, Chester was scared off by a stray shot fired by his former hostages, the DeLeon sisters, after they locked him out and retrieved a handgun.
• Chester was arrested for an unrelated violation of city ordinance just thirty hours after the rape of the DeLeon sisters and the murder of Willie Ryman.