Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes Present
Overnight: 1st Execution of 2026, and He Had A Lot of Last Words
29 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Hey there, folks. It is Thursday, January 29th, and the first execution of 2026 was carried out last night in Texas. And the death row inmate had a lot to say before he was put to death. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. I should qualify that. A lot to say, relatively speaking.
He said more than we are used to a lot of death row inmates saying right before they're put to death.
Yeah, it might be surprising to many, but at least in the executions we've been covering over this past year, most inmates choose to say nothing before they die. At all. They just say, like, nope, no thanks, hard pass. So when someone speaks, it's usually of note, and it's usually one sentence. This was a lot more than that.
Yeah, of note, last night's execution robes was of note for a number of reasons.
Chapter 2: What happened during the first execution of 2026 in Texas?
First of all, it was the first in the United States that we have had in 2026 after a year last year in which we saw an increase, a sharp increase in the executions in the country. It's also notable robes, we say to folks. First execution of 2026, I guess you would have the usual suspects of what state it was.
This one gets back to, I guess, the first one that's top of mind, even though last year Florida led the way.
Yes, we're talking about Texas. And the first execution of 2026, yes, was in Texas, and it was Charles Victor Thompson. He was executed last night in Huntsville, Texas. It took him 22 minutes, I believe, from when they began, but he was pronounced dead at 6.50 p.m. Central Time. And as we have alluded to, it was not uneventful.
It was not. These are all ways. And again, a few witnesses in there having to do with who are connected to the case, families and whatnot. But also you have some journalists that are usually picked to be in there as well. And we are getting some of that commentary from them. Charles Victor Thompson, 55 years old, been on death row.
Chapter 3: Why did Charles Victor Thompson's final words stand out?
Robes, another one of these cases, about 30 years that this family has been waiting for justice but convicted of a double murder back in 1999 killed a woman who was his ex-girlfriend, 39-year-old Denise Hayslip, and her new boyfriend, Darren Kane, who was 30 years old. Now, Robes, last night it was ā this is ā This was well attended, would you not say? Relatively speaking, again.
No, but again, from a perspective standpoint, a lot of times, especially because you have 20, 30, sometimes even 40 years between when the murders happened and when the executions actually take place, because that's how we roll apparently here in the United States, a lot of times anyone who would have wanted to attend had passed or had moved on or it was just too painful to revisit.
So yes, this was a full house, so to speak, because you had... In attendance for Thompson, who was being executed, his father, they put him in a separate room, and that's understandable. Also for Denise Hayslip, her son was there, who was 13 at the time of her murder and has been very outspoken throughout this case.
Her brother and her brother's wife, and then in attendance for Kane, his parents were both there and his ex-wife. So that is a very full house when it comes to executions.
Fairly young man. Cain was only 30 years old. And what, the death row inmate Thompson was 25, 26?
27, I believe, just because I watched an interview he gave over the fall where he was kind of blaming his 27-year-old, kind of like acting as if he was a teenager, that he had an immature mind and had anger issues. And so he was kind of saying, I was just 27, old enough to know better.
So, as it were, and as it went last night, Robes, I also saw and read about this one that, different from others, there was a casualness to him. It seemed like he was interacting with his spiritual advisor, other people in the room, and that was, I guess, almost a... a moment of, it seems weird to say, we've been to a lot of events.
It was almost like the pre-events, like it was almost a, I don't know, like a cocktail hour or something. Everybody was lounging around and hanging out before the main event. That's a weird way to put it, but we're not used to also seeing or hearing this much interaction or casualness to a certain degree in the death chambers.
Yeah, this is a somber event. I've attended one in my life, and we were actually, we had to take a vow of silence. There was no speaking. Once you get on the bus, at least this was in South Carolina, and rode out to where the execution took place, you did not speak, just out of reverence to what was happening. So that is very unusual.
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Chapter 4: What was the significance of Thompson's execution after 30 years on death row?
I'm sorry for what I did. I'm sorry for what happened. And I want to tell all of y'all I love you and that you keep Jesus in your life. Keep Jesus first. To my children, get to know the Lord, and I love you all.
Okay.
It's a lot more than we're used to hearing. Some would argue a lot, lot late as well. I didn't realize, but the DA is the one that said this was the first time he has ever taken responsibility and certainly the first time he ever asked for forgiveness in this crime. That's significant, but he did it at the very last moment.
Look, this might be one of those better late than never. And of course, obviously nothing undoes the trauma that he created and the tragedy that will live forever in the hearts of the family members who are left behind. But an apology does, I would think, have some sort of, I hope that it gives them some sort of peace that it does matter.
it does give you a sense of, there is an acceptance and an acknowledgement of causing someone else pain. There is some gift that is given through that act of apology.
And it seemed like her son, who has been very outspoken in talking about, certainly he was going to attend, he's been talking about that for a while, and he was in fact there. Now, two different sets of comments have emerged from him. He did speak to a press outlet there, Robes, after.
He didn't do a press conference or come out and talk in front of microphones, but he apparently did talk to a local outlet there in Texas. But what's been so widely reported is what he said in the room immediately after Robes, and that's emotional and understandable. What is reported, at least, was a comment he made right after the execution.
Yes, reportedly, Hayslip's son said he's in hell when he died. And look, I get it. He had given some interviews beforehand about, yes, the painfulness of having to wait 28 years to see his mom's killer finally put... But he lost his father recently.
So he just had all the times in his life when he needed his mother, when he graduated from high school, when he met his wife, when he had his children. All of those milestones, he never got to have his mom along the way for him. So all that anger and all that resentment, you can only imagine him uttering, he's in hell. Yeah, I get it.
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Chapter 5: Who were the victims in the case against Charles Victor Thompson?
And for lunch, fried chicken, pinto beans, sweet potatoes, carrots, sliced bread, swirl, pudding, punch, and water. These were just standard prison options. He didn't ask for anything special or anything to be delivered. Don't know that they would have given him different jails or different prisons have different rules. But we've heard some outlandish, very elaborate words. last meal requests.
That were granted, weren't they? Yeah, which has been controversial. So he just kind of stuck with what the prison had to offer and picked the best of the worst, probably.
So, yes, he did die. This is a state that offers lethal injection. Pentobarbital is what it's called. He's essentially given an overdose of this drug. It's a drug that's used to treat seizures. It depresses the nervous system. It's considered a barbiturate, but it is a fast-acting barbiturate that is actually used to euthanize animals. Wow.
And to treat seizures in low doses, but essentially they are giving this man an overdose of this drug. To let you know, he did try. We've seen some robes. Some say, never mind, I'll skip the appeals. Most don't. They'll at least go as far as they can with their legal options. But he ran out. The Supreme Court denied him. The parole board there denied him as well.
We need to mention, yes, we told you, double murder, but this was a pretty horrific crime here.
Yeah, it happened in a Houston suburb. And look, basically, to boil it down, his girlfriend who broke up with him and his son who was there in the chamber talked about witnessing physical violence. She finally broke up with him after dating him for about a year after her 18-year marriage to her son's father. And so she breaks up with him. She gets a new boyfriend. And yeah, he's pissed about it.
So he confronts The new boyfriend at the apartment, and then she calls police. Police come to the scene, and they find the two of them outside the apartment drinking a beer. And apparently, so it seemed like everybody was good. They made up. They found some common ground.
The new boyfriend believed that Thompson had come to terms with the fact that she had moved on, and they kind of just shared a beer over it, right? But no, he comes back. So the police take him back to his house and just say, yeah, you should just go home. Glad you guys all made up. Great. But Thompson comes back an hour later and shoots Kane, what, five times, I believe?
In the chest, yeah, I believe so. And then basically reportedly tells Denise, I can shoot you right now, too. She goes off to run, gets her in the leg, and then shoots her in the cheek. But his assertion was he didn't mean to kill her.
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Chapter 6: What unusual interactions occurred during Thompson's execution?
And it's true. If we have these laws on the books and you are sentenced to death, there is no reason why a family should have to wait three decades, four decades, to actually see that sentence carried out. And that was what DeSantis was trying to do last year, and there's no reason why he wouldn't try to do the same this year. Just start to get resolution for these families.
The next one that is planned is in Florida. A man by the name of Ronald Heath scheduled to die on February 10th for a 1989 murder in Gainesville of a traveling salesman. We will keep an eye on all of this. The other note here, we talk about Texas. I can't remember the number now. But since the death penalty came back, we said Texas overwhelmingly leads the way.
But the number two state would be a county. Harris County, where the execution happened last night, if it were its own state, it would be number two in the country for the most executions. It's the Houston area. It's that county. That county has executed more people than any state in the country except Texas.
That is a fascinating number. And yes, to get an exact number, more than 590 executions have been carried out in the state of Texas since 1976. What's number two on your list? I'm trying to find, I don't, let's see.
I should have it up, but Harris County. Would be number two. Whatever is number two on the list, Harris County has more than that. So they're considered the death penalty capital of the world, I believe they have been called.
I did not know that.
That was Harris County last night. Folks, we will keep an eye on. Did you have them?
Yeah, Oklahoma was the next one since 1976. That was the second state. And it just popped up. 127. So a huge difference. So it's Texas with 598, Oklahoma with 127, Virginia with 113, Florida with 107, and Missouri with 101.
Number two on the list is what?
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