Thomas Bartlett Whitaker

Thomas Bartlett Whitaker (born December 31, 1979) is an American man convicted under the Texas law of parties of murdering two family members as a 23-year-old.

Thomas Bartlett Whitaker was born on December31, 1979, to father Kent, the comptroller of a construction company, and mother Patricia (Trish), an elementary school teacher.

Whitaker attended Clements High School where in 1997 as a 17-year-old he received a criminal conviction for a series of seven burglaries that he had "meticulous[ly]" planned, leading other young friends in the spree.

In that same time frame, Whitaker's parents had bought him several luxury vehicles.

Hipp, who admitted on cross-examination that his participation in Whitaker's schemes had been "motivated by money" — police testified that Whitaker stood to inherit the family estate, valued at $1 million — further testified that in December 2000, prior to the murders of which he stood accused, Whitaker had made another preempted plan, this time to "ambush his parents and brother as they entered their home after a dinner outing," a plan noted by the Houston Chronicle to be "virtually identical to the one [Champagne would soon testify] was actually carried out three years later."

Trial judge Vacek handling of the prosecution's use of a phone recording between Hipp and Whitaker would become an element of the defense's later appeal of the verdict.

Whitaker began attending Baylor University in 2001, transferring from there to Sam Houston State University (SHSU), where he was thought by his parents to be in attendance in late 2003, and from which he was expected to graduate.

He had lied to his parents about his continued status in college; varying reports had him dropping out of SHSU months before, or being present there as a freshman on academic probation.

His parents funded his academic pursuits.

In addition, they purchased a lakeside townhouse in Willis, Texas, for his use, and a $4,000 Rolex watch was given to him as a college graduation present hours before the murders.

Whitaker was convicted on December 10, 2003, for the murders of his mother and 19-year-old brother; he was sentenced to death in March 2007.

He spent years on death row at the Polunsky Unit near Livingston, Texas, before the commutation of his sentence.

Whitaker's father, who Whitaker had also attempted to have murdered, had pleaded with Governor Greg Abbott for the commutation of Whitaker's sentence, stating that by executing his son, the state was simply making him a victim once again.

On December 10, 2003, Thomas Bartlett "Bart" Whitaker falsely told his family that he had just taken his final university exams and would soon be graduating from SHSU.

They drove to the nearby Pappadeaux restaurant in Stafford for a celebratory dinner.

Whitaker had enlisted two individuals to carry out the shootings: Chris Brashear, shooter, and Steven Champagne, Brashear's getaway driver.

Brashear, dressed in black (including a ski mask), entered the Whitaker family home, took Bart's brother Kevin's gun and ammunition from a locked box in his room, staged a burglary, and then waited near the front door for the Whitaker family to return home.

Upon returning home but before entering the house, Bart said that he needed to collect his cell phone from his parked Yukon, knowing that Brashear was armed and waiting inside to kill his family.

Kevin entered the family home first and reportedly smiled when he saw the masked Brashear.

Brashear shot Kevin once through his chest, and Kevin fell to the floor.

Patricia was then also shot in the chest, also falling to the floor.

Kent rushed in and was shot in the shoulder with the bullet shattering his humerus.

Bart then ran inside and staged a struggle with Brashear, getting shot in his left arm to divert suspicion.

Brashear then exited through the Whitakers' back door and jumped over the fence into the rear neighbor's yard.

Bart's brother Kevin died within minutes of being shot; his mother Patricia died shortly after the start of her airlift by Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital, but Bart's father Kent survived.

Bart told first responders that he thought the gunman was black, in order to divert suspicion away from Brashear.

At the trial, Hipp stated that he had contacted the Sugar Land Police Department with information about previous plots after he heard about the Whitaker family murders 2003; he was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying for the prosecution against Whitaker.

The early testimony from Hipp described a first Whitaker plan to set a lake house owned by his grandmother on fire "to kill his parents, brother and other relatives," a plan that never went beyond discussions, but one that included a ruse as an element — the defendant's "com[ing] out of the blaze with burns so that it would appear he had narrowly escaped."

Whitaker left for Mexico in June 2004, using $3000 to persuade an acquaintance to assist him; he assumed the name "Rudy Rios", found work in a furniture shop in Cerralvo, Mexico, developed a relationship with a woman, and concocted a story of service in Afghanistan to explain his gunshot wound.

He lived there under the false name for over a year.

On September 15, 2005, a capital murder warrant was issued against Whitaker.

The acquaintance who had assisted Whitaker to flee became aware of reward money that had been offered for his arrest, and communicated Whitaker's whereabouts to the police.

Cooperating with US authorities, Mexican authorities arrested Whitaker without incident under immigration charges.

In September 2005, Whitaker was handed over to U.S. authorities at the border town of Laredo, Texas, where he was arrested for capital murder.

Whitaker was refused a plea bargain in exchange for his admission of guilt by District Attorney John Healey, and was instead tried for capital murder.

The trial began in March 2007, led by prosecutor Fred Felcman before 400th District Court Judge Clifford Vacek and a Fort Bend County jury.

Evidence was presented that Whitaker had recruited two individuals, Steve Champagne and Chris Brashear, ages 24 and 25 at the time of the 2007 trial respectively, Champagne to be the getaway car driver and Brashear to carry out the shootings in Whitaker's plan to murder his immediate family.

Early evidence was presented that Whitaker had previously recruited others in abortive plots to murder his family, plots involving a co-conspirator named Adam Hipp, who had attended Clements High School with Whitaker.

On February 22, 2018, about 40 minutes before his scheduled 6:00 execution, Whitaker had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole by Governor Greg Abbott, the first such commutation by Abbott and the first in the state since 2007, in which Governor Rick Perry commuted Kenneth Foster's death sentence.

As of September 2021, Whitaker resided in the McConnell Unit near Beeville, Texas.