Summary:

On Christmas Eve in Baytown, Police discovered the body of Roberto Rios in the living room of his home, his arms and torso were bound with duct tape, and he was covered in blood.

He had been shot three times, twice in the head, and slashed with a steak knife that remained embedded in his neck.

His two children, 11 year old Victor and 10 year old Maria, were found upstairs in Maria’s room. Both were dead, lying facedown on the floor, side-by-side. Each had a single, fatal gunshot wound to the back of the head.

Thomas and Keith Bernard Clay had been past drug customers of Rios’, but on that Christmas Eve, they would later tell police, the pair came to the home looking to take the small time dope peddler for everything he had. The children were executed to eliminate witnesses.

Less than two weeks later, Thomas and Clay would be involved in another murder in Baytown. This time their target was Melathethil Tom Varughese, a clerk at the Airwood Grocery Store on Park Street.

Clay entered the convenience store and fired 10 shots at Varughese, hitting him six times. If that was not enough, the clerk was also beaten with the pistol. Thomas was the getaway driver.

Clay was executed on March 20, 2003 for the Varughese murder.

Citations:

Thomas v. Dretke, 120 Fed.Appx. 526 (5th Cir. 2004) (Habeas).

Final Meal:

Declined.

Final Words:

"I want you to be strong and get through this time. Do not fall back. Keep going forward. Don't let this hinder you. Let everybody know I love them." Thomas mentioned several people by their first names, telling his sister to tell them he loved them and to stay strong. "This is kind of hard to put words together. I am nervous and it is hard to put my thoughts together. Sometimes you don't know what to say. I hope these words give you comfort. ... Let everybody know I love them and love is unconditional as mama always told us. I may be gone in flesh but I am always with you in spirit."

ClarkProsecutor.org

Texas Department of Corrections

Inmate: Thomas, Shannon Charles
Date of Birth: 07/27/71
TDCJ#: 999213
Date Received: 12/04/96
Education: 13 years
Date of Offense: 12/24/93
County of Conviction: Harris County
Race: Black
Gender: Male
Hair Color: Brown
Height: 5 ft 09 in
Weight: 250
Eye Color: Brown
Prior Occupation: Machinist

Texas Attorney General

Media Advisory

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Shannon Charles Thomas Scheduled For Execution

AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information about Shannon Charles Thomas, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. Wednesday, November 16, 2005. Thomas was sentenced to death for the 1993 Christmas Eve capital murders of two children in their Baytown home.

FACTS OF THE CRIME

In the early afternoon of Christmas Eve in 1993, Shannon Charles Thomas shot and killed 10-year-old Maria Rios and her 11-year-old brother, Victor Rios, in the upstairs portion of their Baytown home. Thomas and an accomplice, Keith Clay, had just killed the children’s father, Roberto Rios, in the downstairs area of the home.

The father was severely beaten, shot three times and stabbed in the neck with a pair of shears. The children were shot once in the head through a pillow as they lay side by side on the floor. The father’s brother, mother and other family members discovered the victims about 7 p.m. that day.

The motive for the killings was robbery and the elimination of witnesses. The disabled father sold small amounts of marijuana from his home. Thomas bought marijuana from the father at the home on several occasions before the killings.

A friend of the victims testified he briefly visited the victims’ home at around noon on Christmas Eve to leave some Christmas gifts for the children. The children went upstairs after receiving their gifts. The friend saw a white car with tinted windows parked in front of the home. Keith Clay owned a white Cadillac with tinted windows which he reported stolen the day after the murders.

A postal worker delivering mail to the victim’s home at “around noon” on Christmas Eve also noticed a “beige-looking, maybe white” car parked in front of the victim’s home. As he delivered the mail, he saw two men walking down the victim’s drive way. They got into the car parked in front of the victims’ home and left. The postal worker contacted the police the day after the murders and reported what he saw.

The postal worker could not remember the license plate number of the car parked in front of the victims’ home. At trial the postal worker identified Thomas as one of the men he saw walking down the driveway of the victims’ home.

The case remained unsolved for over a year. Thomas and Clay did not become suspects in the murders until after the police arrested one of Thomas’ friends on a narcotics violation and the friend provided the police with information implicating Thomas and Clay in the murders. Thomas was arrested soon thereafter.

At trial, Thomas’ friend testified that Thomas told him shortly after the murders that he shot and stabbed the father and shot the children.

Another one of Thomas’ friends, who at the time of trial was in prison for murder, testified that Thomas and Clay came to his apartment in Houston on the afternoon of the murders. Harris testified they told or intimated to him that they had killed the father and the two children.

CRIMINAL HISTORY AND PUNISHMENT EVIDENCE

During the punishment phase of Thomas’ trial, the prosecution presented evidence that when Thomas committed the killings, he was on probation for the felony offense of delivery of a controlled substance. A motion to revoke his probation was pending when the murders occurred.

The prosecution presented more evidence that Thomas participated in another capital murder on January 4, 1994. A witness testified that he, Thomas and Clay stopped at a convenience store and that Clay shot and killed the clerk during a robbery while Thomas sat in the car “rapping’ to a song on the radio.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Thomas was convicted of capital murder for the deaths of two children. On November 8, 1996, the jury decided punishment, and the trial court sentenced Thomas to death.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Thomas’ conviction and sentence on direct appeal. Thomas did not file a petition for writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court.

While his direct appeal was pending in state court, Thomas filed a petition for state writ of habeas corpus on November 24, 1998. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied relief.

Thomas filed a federal habeas petition in U.S. district court on March 20, 2003, and an amended petition on May 20, 2003. On December 10, 2003, the federal district court denied Thomas’ federal writ.

Thomas filed an application for a certificate of appealability (“COA”) in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on October 11, 2004. On December 27, 2004, the 5th Circuit Court denied Thomas’ application for COA.

Thomas filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court on April 4, 2004. The Court dismissed the petition as jurisdictionally out of time on April 12, 2005.

Thomas filed a successive state habeas application. On Nov. 15, 2005, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed the application as an abuse of the writ.

Texas executes Christmas Eve killer; He's got a debt to pay and it's time to pay it

CNN Law Center

November 16, 2005

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- A Houston man was executed Wednesday evening for a Christmas Eve killing spree that left a Baytown man and two of his children dead.

In a final statement, Shannon Charles Thomas repeatedly expressed love for his family. "I want you to be strong and get through this time," Thomas said with his sister standing a few feet from him, looking through a window. "Do not fall back. Keep going forward. Don't let this hinder you. Let everybody know I love them." Thomas mentioned several people by their first names, telling his sister to tell them he loved them and to stay strong. "This is kind of hard to put words together. I am nervous and it is hard to put my thoughts together. Sometimes you don't know what to say. I hope these words give you comfort. ... Let everybody know I love them and love is unconditional as mama always told us. I may be gone in flesh but I am always with you in spirit." He was pronounced dead at 6:52 p.m., five minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow.

Thomas, 34, was the 19th inmate executed this year and the second in as many nights in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.

Relatives bringing Christmas gifts to the home or Roberto Rios 13 years ago in Baytown, just east of Houston, were greeted with the horror of discovering the three bodies. Rios, 32, had been shot, beaten and stabbed, a steak knife still in his neck. His 11-year-old son, Victor, and 10-year-old daughter, Maria, were upstairs in the small house, both face down and shot in the head.

"When you're at a murder scene looking at dead kids and there's Christmas presents around and you look at the TV and 'It's A Wonderful Life' is playing, it took me five years before I could watch that movie again," Baytown Detective Randy Rhodes said Tuesday. "For the rest of my life, Christmas is going to be associated with those kids. "I hope for his own sake and his own soul he's gotten straight with the Lord, but he's got a debt to pay and it's time to pay it."

'Beat with this pair of tin snips'

Nearly three years ago, an accomplice, Keith Bernard Clay, was put to death for the beating and fatal shooting of a convenience store clerk two weeks after the Rios slayings. Authorities said Clay was the shooter in that case while Thomas waited outside in a car. Thomas also was charged in that slaying but was not tried.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year refused to consider an appeal from Thomas. His lawyers on Tuesday lost a late appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, then took their case back to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In that appeal, which delayed Thomas' punishment past the scheduled 6 p.m. CST (0000 GMT) time, defense lawyers said prosecutors failed to disclose an agreement that in exchange for his testimony in Thomas' case, they'd help out a witness facing a drug charge. Prosecutors said there was no deal. The Supreme Court denied the appeal.

Authorities said Rios, whose ex-wife lived in Monterrey, Mexico, was a small-time marijuana dealer. "They wanted dope and money out of him," said Harris County Assistant District Attorney Marie Munier, who prosecuted the case. Munier said evidence showed Rios was duct-taped to a chair, tortured and "beat with this pair of tin snips or metal snips, a humongous pair of scissors, then stabbed ... The family comes over later that evening to bring presents and they find bodies."

Friend turned him in

It was almost two years before any arrests were made in the slayings. Thomas and Clay apparently told friends about the murders. When one of those friends was arrested on a drug charge, he gave police information implicating Thomas and Clay. A friend testified Thomas told him shortly after the slayings he was responsible for the Rios family killings.

At the time of the killings, Thomas was on probation for delivery of a controlled substance, and records show a motion to revoke his probation was pending. He had also served time at a Harris County boot camp after an assault conviction.

Thomas declined to speak with reporters in the weeks before his scheduled punishment. On a Web site where death row inmates seek pen pals, he described himself as "a very honest person and those are the type of people with whom I choose to associate myself with."

Tuesday night Robert Rowell, 50, was executed for fatally shooting three people at a Houston crack house. One more execution is scheduled in Texas this year. Convicted killer Tony Ford is set to die December 7 for the slaying of an El Paso man during a home robbery a week before Christmas in 1991.

If carried out, the 20 lethal injections would be three less than a year ago and the fewest for a year in Texas since 17 inmates were carried out in 2001. A record 40 were executed in 2000.

Texas man executed for Christmas Eve murders

Reuters News

Wed Nov 16, 2005

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas inmate was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday for killing a man and his two children during a Christmas Eve 1993 robbery. Shannon Thomas, 34, was the second person put to death this week and the 19th this year in Texas, which leads the United States in capital punishment.

Thomas said he was nervous and unable to think clearly as he made his final statement while strapped to a gurney in the Texas death chamber. "This is kind of hard to put words together. I am nervous and it is hard to put my thoughts together. Sometimes you don't know what to say," he told execution witnesses, who included his sister and a friend. "Let everybody know I love them, and love is unconditional as Mama always told us. I may be gone in the flesh, but I am always with you in spirit. I love you," Thomas said.

Thomas was condemned for shooting and stabbing to death small-time drug dealer Roberto Rios while robbing him at his Houston-area home on December 24, 1993. After killing Rios, he went upstairs and shot his children, Victor, 11, and Maria, 10, so there would be no witnesses, police said.

Thomas' execution follows that of Robert Rowell, 50, was received a lethal injection on Tuesday for killing two people in a Houston crack house in 1993. Thomas, who requested no last meal, was the 355th person executed in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982.

Tony Ford, condemned for a 1991 murder in the western city of El Paso, is scheduled to die on December 7 in the state's last execution of the year. His lawyers said on Wednesday he was wrongly identified as the killer and they had filed motions in various courts seeking a stay of execution and a new trial.

ProDeathPenalty.com

On Dec. 24, 1993, Shannon Thomas and Keith Clay committed the triple murder of Roberto Rios; Rios' 13-year-old son, Victor; and Rios' 10-year-old daughter, Maria, at Rios' home.

Clay confessed to only "roughing up" Roberto Rios, who was found bound with duct tape, beaten with a pair of bolt cutters, stabbed in the neck, and shot three times. His two children were found shot execution style in the back of the head. Shannon Thomas was also present with Keith Bernard Clay during the murder of a convenience store clerk less than two weeks later. Thomas was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for his role as the primary actor in the Rios family murders.

On Jan. 4, 1994, Melathethil Tom Varughese, the clerk at the Texaco station who was working alone, was found lying on the floor behind the cashier's booth with Christmas tree lights wrapped around his wrists. Two $20 bills were found on the floor under the register, and eight shell casings were found scattered around the store.

Varughese had been shot six times in various parts of his body. He suffered multiple lacerations on his face and forehead, and suffered extensive blunt force trauma to the head, including a fractured skull. Items missing from the store included: most of the money in the cash register, a pistol usually kept behind the counter, and a small red cigar box kept behind the counter that occasionally had money in it.

Evidence presented at trial indicated that the eight shell casings found at the scene came from the same 9 mm Hi-Point pistol. The bullets found in Varughese's body were from two different guns, one a 9 mm, and the other, a revolver like the one kept under the cash register.

Houston authorities arrested Clay the following December under suspicion for Varughese's murder and for the 1993 Christmas Eve triple murder of the Roberto Rios family that had occurred two weeks before the Varughese murder.

Clay was subsequently convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for his role in the Varughese robbery/murder. Evidence presented during the punishment phase of Clay's capital murder trial included his admitted presence and participation in the Rios family incident.

Texas Execution Information Center by David Carson

Txexecutions.org

Shannon Charles Thomas, 34, was executed by lethal injection on 16 November 2005 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of three people during a home robbery.

At about 7:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, 1993, members of Roberto Rios's family discovered three murder victims in Rios's Baytown home. Rios's body was downstairs. He had been severely beaten, stabbed in the neck with shears, and shot three times. Upstairs, Rios's children, Victor, 11, and Maria, 10, had been shot once in the head through a pillow as they lay side by side on the floor.

The day after the murders, Earl Guidry, a postal worker, contacted the police. He said that he was at the home delivering mail around noon the day of the shootings and noticed a beige or white car parked in front of the victims' home. As he delivered the mail, he saw two men walk down the driveway, get in the car, and leave. Also on the day after the murders, Keith Clay reported that his car, a white Cadillac with tinted windows, had been stolen.

The case remained unsolved for over a year, until a man arrested on a narcotics violation, Joseph Jones, implicated his friends, Shannon Thomas, and Keith Clay.

Thomas and Clay were 22 and 25, respectively, at the time of the murders. Jones agreed to tape record a conversation with Thomas, in which Thomas made incriminating statements about the murders. Thomas was arrested.

In his first statement, Thomas admitted that he knew Rios and had been to his home on several occasions, including the day of the crime, to buy marijuana, but he denied any knowledge of the killings. In a second statement, Thomas said that Clay, acting alone, killed the Rioses after he left.

A friend of Rios's testified that he visited the victims' home around noon on Christmas Eve to drop off some gifts for the children. He testified that he saw a white car with tinted windows parked in front of the home. Earl Guidry also identified Thomas as one of the two men he saw walking down the victims' driveway as he was delivering the mail around noon on the day of the crime. In addition to Jones, two other of Thomas's friends testified that Thomas had confessed the killings to them.

The prosecution stated that Thomas and Clay went to Rios's home to rob him because they had bought drugs from him before and assumed he had drugs and money to steal. At Thomas's punishment hearing, the prosecution presented evidence that Thomas and Clay committed a convenience store robbery on 1 January 1994, in which a clerk, Melathethil "Tom" Varughese, was shot and killed.

A jury convicted Thomas of the capital murder of Victor and Maria Rios in November 1996 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in March 1999. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Keith Bernard Clay confessed in writing to being involved in the Rios murders. He was charged, but not tried, in that case. He was, however, found guilty of capital murder in the convenience store robbery. He was executed by lethal injection in March 2003. Thomas was charged, but not tried, in the Varughese murder. Thomas declined to speak with reporters while on death row.

The execution was delayed for about 30 minutes by a late appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. In his last statement, Thomas spoke for about a minute, expressing love and encouragement to his friends and family. The lethal injection was then started. As the drugs started taking effect, Thomas asked, "Is the mic still on?" He was told that it was, but then he lost consciousness. He was pronounced dead at 6:52 p.m.

National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

TEXAS - Shannon Charles Thomas - November 16, 2005

Shannon Charles Thomas, a black man, is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 16, 2005 for the shooting deaths of Roberto Rios, a Hispanic man, his son, Victor Roberto Rios and, his daughter, Maria Elda Isbell Rios.

Thomas and another man, Keith Clay, are accused of entering the home of Rios, a drug dealer, and robbing and killing Rios. Thomas is then accused of killing the two children. There was no physical evidence in the case.

Thomas was accused solely on the basis of circumstantial evidence. Thomas was 22 years old at the time of the crime. One piece of information on which Thomas’s conviction was based was the fact that he possessed a gun similar to the murder weapon. Although many may have also owned similar guns, this information was part of the circumstantial evidence on which Thomas was convicted of capital murder.

There were also a number of witness testimonies. A postal worker claimed that he saw two men, not necessarily Thomas and Clay, leaving the Rios home at the time of the crime. After undergoing hypnosis, he tentatively identified Thomas as one of those men.

Another witness secretly tape-recorded a conversation with Thomas “in which Thomas made incriminating statements.” Another man claimed to have seen a car resembling Clay’s car near the Rios home. Again many may have owned such a car, but Thomas is being convicted because Clay owned such a car.

This witness’s testimony only actually suggests that Clay was present, not Thomas, and does not even prove that. Finally two other witnesses stated that Thomas had admitted the murders to them. Witness testimonies in general are often unreliable and the reliability of the witness testimonies in this case are definitely questionable.

Clearly the case against Thomas is purely circumstantial. Considering the danger of sentencing innocent people to death it is important that we not implement capital punishment in cases that lack compelling physical evidence.

Please write Gov. Rick Perry requesting that he commute Shannon Charles Thomas’s death sentence to a life sentence.

Christmas Eve killer faces death

Baytown Sun

November 15, 2005

Shannon Thomas faces lethal injection Wednesday for killing a man and his two children 12 years ago on Christmas Eve in Baytown.

Thomas, now 34, and his accomplice, Keith Clay, turned the house on 2204 Maryland into a sickening arena of evil. One lawman described the 1993 murders of Roberto Rios, 32, and his two children, Maria, 10, and Victor, 11, as “a slaughter.”

The Rios family had only lived in the two-story rent assisted wood and brick house on Maryland Street for only six months. Victor and Maria attended Ashbel Smith Elementary School. They were excellent students who had accumulated many award certificates for their schoolwork and perfect attendance records.

Police found Roberto’s on the floor of the living room, his arms and torso were bound with duct tape, and he was covered in blood. He had been shot three times, twice in the head, and slashed with a steak knife that remained embedded in his neck.

Reports would later indicate that that Roberto Rios had also sustained broken bones from what appeared to be a severe beating. Victor and Maria were found upstairs in Maria’s room. Both were dead, lying facedown on the floor, side-by-side. Each had a single, fatal gunshot wound to the back of the head.

Known locally as the “Vato Man,” Roberto Rios supplemented his meager government assisted income by peddling dope from the house. He primarily dealt marijuana, but was also known to sell cocaine as well. Rios’ dealing explained the scene to cops: some of his business associates - detectives reasoned it would take more than one person to commit the crime - had come to the house looking for money or dope or both. Or maybe they came to settle a debt. Whichever way it played out, the killings bore the hallmarks of an execution.

Shannon Charles Thomas, 22, and Keith Bernard Clay, 25, had been past customers of Rios’. But on that Christmas Eve, they would later tell police, the pair came to the home looking to take the small time dope peddler for everything he had.

Less than two weeks after the slaying of the Rios family, Thomas and Clay would be involved in another murder in Baytown. This time their target was Melathethil Tom Varughese, 44, a clerk at the Airwood Grocery Store on Park Street. Sometime after 8:30 p.m., one of the two entered the convenience store and fired 10 shots at Varughese, hitting him six times. If that was not enough, the clerk was also beaten with the pistol.

For two years, the Rios killings and the Varughese murder went unsolved. Police did not even know the two incidents were related. The break came in December 1995. Baytown police detectives received information from the Jefferson County Narcotics Task Force that they had arrested a suspect in an unrelated case that implicated Thomas and Clay in the Rios slayings.

Police soon arrested the pair and brought them in for questioning. During the session, both men admitted to being in the house on Christmas Eve but each fingered the other as the killer. Soon, however, police sorted out the mess. Thomas pulled the trigger on all three of the Rios clan while Clay helped out. Clay, on the other hand, committed the Varughese murder while Thomas waited in the get-away car outside.

Thomas was sentenced to death by lethal injection in 1996. Clay was executed in 2003 for the Varughese murder.

Convicted Texas killer in Christmas Eve triple slaying set to die

Kristv.com

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Relatives carrying gifts to a home in Baytown on Christmas Eve in 1993 were greeted with the horror of discovering three of their loved ones murdered. Two preteen children had been shot in the head and their father shot, beaten and stabbed, a steak knife still in his neck.

Nearly two years later, two men were arrested for the slayings of Roberto Rios, 32, his 11-year-old son, Victor, and 10-year-old daughter, Maria. Wednesday evening, one of those men, Shannon Charles Thomas, faced lethal injection for the murders of the children. Thomas, 34, would be the 19th Texas prisoner executed this year and the second in as many nights.

His execution would come almost three years after his accomplice, Keith Bernard Clay, was put to death for the beating and fatal shooting of a Baytown convenience store clerk two weeks after the Rios slayings. Authorities said Clay was the shooter in that case while Thomas waited outside in a car. Thomas also was charged in that slaying but was not tried. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year refused to consider an appeal from Thomas. His lawyers were back in the courts this week trying to get the punishment delayed.

Thomas and Clay showed up at the home of Rios, described as a small-time marijuana dealer. Rios was shot twice in the head and stabbed. The bodies of the children were found on the second floor. "He was a single father with two young children and I think the dad was disabled," said Harris County Assistant District Attorney Marie Munier, who prosecuted the case. "What he did was sold little bits of marijuana out of the house. They wanted dope and money out of him."

Munier said evidence showed Rios was duct-taped to a chair, tortured and "beat with this pair of tin snips or metal snips, a humongous pair of scissors, then stabbed... The family comes over later that evening to bring presents and they find bodies." "Upstairs, you find two children, a little boy and little girl, Christmas presents around, school awards on the walls," Baytown Police Detective Randy Rhodes said Tuesday, recalling the scene from 12 years ago. "They were just laid down and shot in the back of the head... For the rest of my life, Christmas is going to be associated with those kids."

Thomas declined to speak with reporters in the weeks before his scheduled punishment. On a Web site where death row inmates seek pen pals, he described himself as "a very honest person and those are the type of people with whom I choose to associate myself with." "Shannon always had been around trouble," Clay said in an interview eight days before his March 20, 2003, execution. Clay said he was with Thomas when they drove to Rios' house but insisted he did not participate in the shootings. "He told me he wanted to pick up some weed," Clay said. "I never stepped one foot into that man's house."

But the pair apparently told friends about the murders and when one of those friends was arrested more than a year later on a drug charge, he gave police information implicating the two. At trial, the friend testified Thomas told him shortly after the slayings he was responsible for the Rios family killings.

At the time of the slayings, Thomas was on probation for delivery of a controlled substance and records show a motion to revoke his probation was pending. He'd also served time at a Harris County boot camp after an assault conviction.

Tuesday night Robert Rowell, 50, was executed for fatally shooting three people at a Houston crack house. A third person was wounded and left paralyzed. In a brief final statement as relatives of one of his victims watched through a window, Rowell apologized for "all the grief I have caused them." He was pronounced dead nine minutes after the lethal drugs began flowing in his arms.

One more execution is scheduled in Texas this year. Convicted killer Tony Ford is set to die Dec. 7 for the slaying of an El Paso man during a home robbery a week before Christmas in 1991. If carried out, the 20 lethal injections would be three less than a year ago and the fewest for a year in Texas since 17 inmates were carried out in 2001. A record 40 were executed in 2000.

Abolish Archives

Thurs. May 15, 1997--TEXAS:

A man convicted of murdering a convenience store clerk has been sentenced to death by lethal injection. The Houston jury deliberated 8 hours before deciding on the death sentence for Keith Bernard Clay, 28, in the murder of Melathethil Tom Varughese.

Clay robbed the store in Baytown on Jan. 4, 1994, shot at Varughese 10 times, hitting him 6, then beat him with a pistol, said prosecutor Marie Munier. The jury also heard about an unrelated crime Clay alleged was involved in just a week before the robbery -- the Christmas Eve 1993 murders of a Baytown man and his 2 young children. Clay's co-defendant in that case, Shannon Thomas, is already on death row for those murders.

Police say the 2, looking for money, entered Robert Rios' home on Dec. 24, shot him twice in the head, stabbed him in the neck, then shot his children, Maria Elda Isabell Rios, 10, and Victor Roberto Rios, 11. The bodies were found by relatives who came to the house that night with Christmas presents; the children's bodies were upstairs, face down on the floor with gunshot wounds to the head.

Police at the time thought the killings were drug-related because Rios was aknown small-time marijuana dealer. Though both Clay and Thomas said they were at the house, both denied shooting the 3 victims. Later, however, they bragged to their friends about the killings, police say.

Prosecutor Munier said that Thomas did the shooting, but that Clay may have held the children down.

In the convenience store robbery and murder, there was witness. Clay went in the store about 8:30 pm. looking more to kill than to rob, Munier said, adding that "it was a vicious, brutal murder fork I think, not so much for the money, but to prove that he was a killer to his friend."

The jury agreed with the prosecution that Clay constituted a future threat to society, and, rejecting the defense's call for a life sentence, returned with a verdict of death.

Keith Bernard Clay & Shannon Charles Thomas

The Huntsville Item

March 21, 2003

Last week, Delma Banks drew a great deal of domestic and international attention when he was scheduled to be the 300th person to be executed in Texas since the death penalty was reinstated. At the last moment, however, his execution was stayed for a 16th time. On Thursday evening, Keith Bernard Clay, sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of a Baytown convenience store clerk, became a footnote to history as the 300th person executed since 1982. With Operation Iraqi Freedom in full swing half a world away, his execution passed nearly without notice.

Before making a final statement, Clay made eye contact with the daughter, brother-in-law and sister-in-law of Melathethil Tom Varghese, the man he was convicted of killing the night of Jan. 4, 1994. When he spoke, Clay asked for forgiveness from both them and God.

"I would like to say first and foremost to the Lord God Almighty that I am sorry and forgive me of every single solitary sin I have committed these 35 years," he said. "To the Varghese family, I ask that you forgive me because I know you have suffered a great loss and I am truly, truly sorry ... there is not a day that I have not prayed for you."

Clay then addressed his mother, Cynthia Smith, who was listed on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's official witness list as his spiritual advisor. Smith is an ordained minister. "Mom, I love you," he said. "I am going to see the Lord ... this is not goodbye. I will see you later." When Clay completed his final statement, his mother smiled at him and gave him a "thumbs-up" sign. There was no visible emotion displayed by Varghese's family.

The lethal dose of chemicals was started at 6:15 p.m. Clay was pronounced dead eight minutes later.

It took nearly a year for authorities to arrest Clay for Varghese's murder. Clay was one of three men to enter the Texaco convenience store where Varghese worked to buy cigarettes.

After the other two men left the store, Clay allegedly bound Varghese's hands with a strand of Christmas lights and beat him so severely his skull was fractured. Varghese was shot six times with two different guns, one of which was used in the store for security purposes and another which was traced back to Clay. At the time of his death, Varghese, an Indian immigrant, had been in the United States less than a year.

Clay and his friend, Shannon Charles Thomas, were taken into custody not only on the suspicion that they were responsible for Varghese's murder, but also were connected to the killings of Roberto Rios and his two daughters, ages 10 and 13, on Christmas Eve, 1993. The two girls were shot execution-style in the back of the head, while Rios was bound, beaten with a pair of bolt cutters, stabbed and then shot three times.

After he was arrested, Clay confessed to "roughing up" Rios but denied having anything to do with his murder. Thomas was tried for the Rios murders and was sentenced to death. He currently remains on death row.

Clay's execution was the 11th in Texas this year. The next execution in the state is scheduled for next Thursday, when James Colburn of Montgomery County is scheduled to be put to death.

Lamp of Hope.org

To Whom It May Concern:

Well, let me begin this letter by saying hello. My name is Shannon C. Thomas. I'm a 30 year old male that has been incarcerated on Texas death row since December 5, 1996. I would very much like to correspond with a pen-friend in hopes of building a truly genuine friendship that I am very much in need of.

Now let me give you a brief description about myself. I'm a very easy going, open minded person, somewhat of an optimist, as well as a leader by nature. I'm a very honest person and those are the type of people with whom I choose to associate myself with. My birthday is 7-27-71. Height is 5ft 8 inches. I am roughly 235 pounds in weight. Well I'm a serious person but I do have a sense of humor and I enjoy nothing more than to see a person smile. My nationality is African American by label. Really I'm a people person but mostly I enjoy interaction with females on all levels. By the way, I would prefer females of 23 years old or older, if possible, but men are equally welcome to respond to my letter if they wish to do so.

My interests are basic enough although I do enjoy the finer things in life but the simple things are just as important to me as well. I enjoy mostly all sports – football, basketball, baseball etc. Guess you can say I'm a saportaholic. I love pretty much all type and style of music because I feel that music is a universal language that any and everybody can feel and understand. I love good movies, scary, romantic, comedy, and I love reading a good book and poetry. One more thing – race/ethnic or religious background are of no concern to me. Only that the person is open to regular correspondence and building a true friendship.

In closing I would like to thank you very much for taking the time to read my introduction letter. Please be assured that if you decide to respond and write me that there's a lot more to the man behind this pen, therefore I'm waiting to hear from you. I'm ready to establish a regular correspondence and true friendship.

Respectfully, Shannon C. Thomas
Polunsky Unit/999213
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston, TEXAS 77351 USA

Texas Execution Information Center by David Carson

Keith Bernard Clay, 35, was executed by lethal injection on 20 March 2003 in Huntsville, Texas for the robbery and murder of a convenience store clerk.

On 4 January 1994, Melathethil Varughese was murdered during a robbery of the store where he was working. His body was found lying on the floor behind the cashier's booth. His hands were bound with a string of Christmas lights. Eight 9 mm shell casings were found scattered around the store. He had been shot six times. Some of the gunshots were from a 9 mm pistol, and some were from a revolver which was kept in the store, under the cash register. He also had a fractured skull resulting from being beaten with a blunt object. He also had multiple lacerations on his face and forehead. The money from the cash register had been stolen, along with another box containing money.

Two men -- Keith Clay, then 25, and Shannon Thomas, 22 -- were arrested on suspicion of a triple homicide in Baytown which occurred two weeks earlier. Further investigation connected them to the Varughese murder. A third man, Ernest King, testified that he, Clay, and Thomas drove to the convenience store on 4 January so he could buy some cigarettes. King testified that as he left the store, Clay entered. King heard gunshots, looked inside, and saw Clay holding a gun. After more gunshots, Clay came out of the store carrying a box and the three left in their car.

The 9mm pistol used in the robbery belonged to Clay. He had bought it from King a month earlier.

Clay had a prior conviction for possession of cocaine. He received a two-year prison sentence in August 1990. (Information on time served was not available for this report.) Clay also confessed in writing to being involved in the December 1993 murder of Roberto Rios and his two daughters in their home. He was charged, but not tried, in that case.

A jury convicted Clay of capital murder in April 1997 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in March 1998. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied, including a last-minute appeal claiming that Clay, who graduated from high school, was retarded.

Shannon Charles Thomas was convicted of capital murder in the Rios case and is on death row. He was charged, but not tried, in the Varughese case.

In a death-row interview, Clay denied that he participated in either murder. He said that he "never set foot" in Rios' house, and that he waited in the car at the convenience store while King and Thomas went inside. "Whatever God's will is for my life, I'm going to accept, Clay said. "Lord Jesus, He was wrongly convicted for something He didn't do, and paid the price."

"I know you have suffered a great loss and I am truly, truly sorry," Clay told the victim's family at his execution. He also asked God to "forgive me of every single solitary sin I have committed these 35 years I have lived upon the earth." Finally, Clay told his mother, "Let everyone know that I love them. This is not goodbye. I will see you later." He began praying softly as the lethal injection was administered. He was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m.

Execution of Baytown man No. 300 in Texas

by Timothy Williams - Baytown Sun

March 21, 2003

HUNTSVILLE — Sentenced to death for the 1994 murder of a Baytown convenience store clerk, Keith Bernard Clay apologized to family members of his victim before he became the 300th Texas prisoner put to death Wednesday.

Strapped to the table, Clay, also from Baytown, turned his head toward family members of Melathethil Tom Varughese and asked for forgiveness. “To the Varughese family, I would ask that you forgive me because I know you have suffered a great loss, and I am truly, truly sorry,” Clay said. “I know what you have suffered but please grant me your forgiveness.”

Clay was convicted in 1997 for the shooting death of Varughese during a robbery at the Airwood Grocery Store on Park Street.

Continuing his statement, Clay told his mother, Cynthia Smith, that he loved her and would see her again. “Let everyone know that I love them. This is not goodbye,” he said. “I will see you later.” Smith smiled and gave him two thumbs up. Clay was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m., eight minutes after the lethal dose began. He is the 300th prisoner executed since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that the death penalty could be reinstated.

The Supreme Court last week refused to review his case and the state parole board refused to consider a clemency petition because it was filed 15 days too late. About six protesters, holding signs advocating an end to the death penalty, stood outside the Walls Unit in Huntsville as reporters were led inside to witness the execution.

Clay was linked to the murder with the testimony of Ernest Lee King. Clay had purchased the 9 mm “Hi-Point” handgun used in the crime from King, who witnessed Clay in the store holding a gun after several gunshots had been fired. Varughese was found by two Baytown women about 20 minutes later at 8:50 p.m. He had been shot six times in various parts of his body, suffered multiple lacerations and extensive blunt face trauma that fractured his skull. His wrists were bound with Christmas tree lights.

Prosecutors also linked Clay to the 1993 Christmas Eve robbery and triple-murder of Roberto Rios and his two children, 10-year-old Maria and 13-year-old Victor. Clay confessed, but was never tried for “roughing up” Roberto, who was bound with duct tape, beaten with bolt cutters, stabbed in the neck and shot three times.

Shannon Charles Thomas, a friend of Clay’s, was convicted of the murders and sentenced to death row. His case is on appeal.

Thomas v. Dretke, 120 Fed.Appx. 526 (5th Cir. 2004) (Habeas)

Background: Petitioner sought federal habeas corpus relief after he was convicted in state court of capital murder and sentenced to death. The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas denied petition. Petitioner applied for certificate of appealability (COA) allowing appeal.

Holdings: The Court of Appeals held that:
(1) petitioner was not entitled to COA on claim challenging admission of in-court identification, and
(2) petitioner was not entitled to COA on claim alleging that state court violated due process by failing to instruct jury that, if given life sentence, petitioner would be eligible for parole in 40 years. Request denied.

JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge

Shannon Thomas seeks a certificate of appealability ("COA") from the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. Because Thomas cannot make a substantial showing of the denial of a federal constitutional right, we deny a COA.

On Christmas Eve 1993, Thomas and his friend Keith Clay entered the home of *528 Roberto Rios, a marihuana dealer. Thomas and Clay robbed Rios, then murdered him by shooting him three times and stabbing him in the neck with a pair of scissors. Thomas then went upstairs and executed Rios's two children, ten year-old Maria and eleven year-old Victor, by shooting each in the head through a pillow as they lay side-by-side on the floor.

The murders remained unsolved for over a year, until the police received information from Joseph "Boo" Jones, a friend of Clay and Thomas. After his arrest, Thomas gave the police two written statements. In the first, he acknowledged purchasing narcotics from Rios that day but denied any knowledge of the killings. In his second statement, Thomas asserted that Clay had acted alone in killing the Rios family after Thomas had left the residence.

Thomas was indicted for the capital murder of Victor Rios. At trial, no physical evidence was presented to link him to the murders. He was inculpated, however, by an abundance of circumstantial evidence, including information that he possessed a gun similar to the murder weapon. In addition, the state presented testimony linking him to the robbery and murders. Three witnesses testified that Thomas had asked them to participate in robbing Rios; two of them stated that Thomas had admitted the murders to them. One of the witnesses, Jones, agreed to tape record a conversation with Thomas at the request of the police, in which Thomas made incriminating statements about the murders.

Additionally, evidence put Thomas at the scene of the crime, including the statement of a postal worker, Earl Guidry, who saw two men leaving the Rios home near the time of the killings. Guidry tentatively identified Thomas after undergoing hypnosis and participating in several photograph identification arrays and one live line-up. Another witness testified that he saw a car resembling Clay's near the Rios residence shortly before the murders.

Thomas was convicted, and the jury answered the special issues in a manner requiring the imposition of a death sentence. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence on direct appeal. Thomas v. State, No. 72,701 (Tex Crim.App. Mar. 31, 1999). Thomas did not seek a writ of certiorari. While his direct appeal was pending, Thomas sought state habeas relief, which was denied by the Court of Criminal Appeals. Ex Parte Thomas, No. 51,306- 01 (Tex.Crim.App. Mar. 20, 2002). Thomas then filed for a federal writ of habeas corpus under § 2254, raising six claims of error. The district court dismissed the claims on summary judgment and refused to grant a COA. Thomas v. Dretke, No. H-03-CV-988 (S.D.Tex. Dec. 10, 2003). Thomas now seeks a COA on two of his claims.

* * *

Thomas contends it was error to keep the information about his parole eligibility from the jury based on Simmons v. South Carolina, 512 U.S. 154, 169, 114 S.Ct. 2187, 129 L.Ed.2d 133 (1994), where the Court concluded that the possibility of a life sentence without possibility of parole is relevant to a jury's determination of whether the defendant poses future harm to society. To support his position, Thomas points to language in Simmons v. South *531 Carolina saying that "[i]n assessing future dangerousness, the actual duration of the defendant's prison sentence is indisputably relevant." Id. at 163.

The Court, however, also specifically delineated that the holding was inapplicable in circumstances in states where parole was available for capital offenses, as is the case in Texas. [FN4] The Court confirmed the limited nature of the Simmons v. South Carolina holding in Ramdass v. Angelone, 530 U.S. 156, 168, 120 S.Ct. 2113, 147 L.Ed.2d 125 (2000), stating that "Simmons applies only to instances where, as a legal matter, there is no possibility of parole if the jury decides the appropriate sentence is life in prison." Moreover, as the district court observed, we have repeatedly rejected similar claims seeking to extend Simmons v. South Carolina to the Texas capital sentencing procedure.

* * *

Because there is no well-settled federal law supporting Thomas's position, AEDPA precludes federal courts from granting relief, because it cannot be said that the state court's application of federal law was objectively unreasonable. Because binding precedent forecloses relief on this claim, jurists of reason could not disagree with the district court's decision to dismiss this claim, and therefore the request for a COA is DENIED.