Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. To keep creating
new content, we kindly appreciate any donation you can give to help
the Murderpedia project stay alive. We have many
plans and enthusiasm
to keep expanding and making Murderpedia a better site, but we really
need your help for this. Thank you very much in advance.
Status:
Executed
by lethal injection in Texas on January 30,
2007
Summary:
Police received a call from the Days Inn that a five-year-old boy
was abandoned at the motel. Upon arrival, the child was identified
as Zachary Swift and explained that his father left him at the motel
the night before after killing the boy’s mother and grandmother.
Police went to Swift's home and found the body of
his pregnant wife, Amy Amel Sabeh-Swift on the floor of the trailer.
The body of Sandy Sabeh was found in the kitchen of her Lake Dallas
home.
A trace of Swift’s electronic debit card use led
authorities to Swift’s hideout at a motel in Dallas. During the five-hour
interrogation that followed his arrest, Swift stated that he choked
both women, then drove his son, Zachary, to a motel room. His
marriage had gotten off to a rocky start.
Four days after their wedding, he started a four-year
prison sentence after pleading guilty to assaulting a Texas state
trooper in 1996 and a Denton County woman in 1997. Swift waived all
appeals.
Citations:
Swift v. State, Not Reported in S.W.3d, 2006 WL 2696266 (Tex.Cr.App.
1999) (Direct Appeal).
Final/Special Meal:
A medium-well done steak with sauce, a salad with ranch dressing,
cheddar cheese and bacon bits, a baked potato with sour cream, two
slices of apple pie, three large rolls, two cokes and a cup of
coffee.
Final Words:
Declined.
ClarkProsecutor.org
Texas Department
of Criminal Justice
Inmate: Swift, Christopher Jay
Date of Birth: 02/12/1975
TDCJ#: 999496
Date Received: 04/11/2005
Education: 10 years
Occupation: laborer
Date of Offense: 04/29/2003
County of Offense: Denton
Native County: Dallas County, Texas
Race: White
Gender: Male
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 5' 09"
Weight: 150 lb
Texas Attorney
General
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Media Advisory:
Christopher Swift Scheduled For Execution
AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott
offers the following information about Christopher Jay Swift, who is
scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. Tuesday, January 30, 2007, for
the strangulation of his wife, Amy Amel Sabeh-Swift and his mother-in-law,
Sandy Sabeh. In April 2005, he was tried for capital murder,
convicted, and sentenced to death.
FACTS OF THE CRIME
On April 30, 2003, the Farmer’s Branch Police
Department received a call from the Stemmons Freeway Days Inn that a
five-year-old boy was abandoned at the motel and had been playing
unsupervised in the lobby area.
Officers went to the motel, and the child,
Zachary Swift, explained that his father left him at the motel the
night before after killing the boy’s mother and grandmother.
According to Zachary, Swift stabbed and killed Zachary’s mother,
drove Zachary to Swift’s mother-in-law’s house, and killed Zachary’s
grandmother, too.
Irving police found the body of Amy Amel Sabeh-Swift
on the floor of the trailer home she shared with Swift. Lake Dallas
officers discovered the body of Sandy Sabeh in the kitchen of her
Lake Dallas home. A trace of Swift’s electronic debit card use led
authorities to Swift’s hideout at a motel in Dallas. During the five-hour
interrogation that followed his arrest, Swift stated that he choked
both women, then drove his son, Zachary, to a motel room.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Swift was indicted for capital murder. Trial on
the merits began on March 28, 2005, in the 211th District Court of
Denton County. In Apil 2005, Swift was found guilty and sentenced to
death.
Swift insisted that he did not want a lawyer to
represent him on direct appeal. After a hearing, the trial court
determined that Swift was evaluated by an expert in whose opinion
Swift was competent to decide to represent himself, and that Swift
waived counsel voluntarily. In an unpublished opinion issued on
September 20, 2006, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed
Swift’s conviction and sentence. Swift did not pursue certiorari
review. Swift, in fact, waived his right to further challenge the
validity of his conviction and death sentence. At his request, the
trial court set his execution for this year: January 30, 2007.
CRIMINAL BACKGROUND
On December 24, 1996, Swift committed aggravated
assault when he allowed his vehicle to strike a police officer.
Swift’s explanation was that he was “just drunk.”
On January 27, 1997, Swift committed another
aggravated assault when he punched his mom several times in the head
and face, then threatened her with a knife. Swift’s explanation for
that offense was: “I didn’t threaten her, she lied.”
In July 1997, the State sentenced Swift to four
years’ imprisonment for second-degree aggravated assault (for the
attack on his mom) and “lesser included offense aggravated assault”
(for the attack on the officer). Prior to that, Swift was arrested
for evading arrest, assault causing bodily injury, aggravated
assault with a deadly weapon, and driving while intoxicated.
N. Texas man executed for killing wife, mother-in-law
Dallas Morning
News
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
HUNTSVILLE, Texas – Condemned killer Christopher
Swift was executed Tuesday, spurning appeals that could stop or
delay his execution for the slayings of his wife and mother-in-law
in North Texas. Asked if he had a final statement, Swift responded:
"no." Seven minutes later at 6:20 p.m., he was pronounced dead as
five friends watched. No relatives of survivors attended the
execution.
The lethal injection of Swift, 31, was the third
this year in Texas, the nation's most active capital punishment
state. "Receiving the death penalty is what he's wanted from Day 1,
from the first day I met him," said Derek Adame, who was one of
Swift's trial lawyers. "He and I had several discussions about it.
It was frustrating for me. That's what makes it hard to deal with.
It's the ultimate punishment."
Evidence showed Swift's 5-year-old son watched as
the former laborer and parolee stabbed and strangled his pregnant
wife, Amy Sabeh-Swift, in the family recreational vehicle in Irving.
Then he took the boy to a mobile home park in Lake Dallas and
strangled his wife's mother, Sandra Stevens Sabeh, 61, at her home.
The boy was found the next day, April 30, 2003,
wandering the lobby of a Days Inn in Irving where his father had
rented a room. Swift left after the child fell asleep. Hotel
staffers fed him breakfast and let him watch cartoons in the lobby
but then called police after no one claimed him and he was getting
frightened. When police arrived, the child told them his father had
killed his mother and grandmother. Officers found their bodies.
Swift was under arrest within hours.
Defense lawyers tried to show Swift should be
found innocent by reason of insanity. Prosecutors presented
witnesses who said Swift knew what he was doing and was not insane.
"He never denied doing the killings," said Lee Ann Breading, a
former Denton County assistant district attorney who prosecuted the
case. "The whole issue centered on his mental state and evidence
basically turned on the legal definition of insanity. "He didn't
meet it. He knew what he was doing was wrong. He had talked a lot
about how police 'are going to put me in jail."'
Authorities determined after abandoning his son
at the Days Inn, he got himself a room elsewhere and some beer. "He
had some issues," Breading said. "Leave your kid in a hotel and
drink a 12-pack – issues juries don't like."
Swift's 27-year-old wife worked as an aide at the
Denton State School for the mentally disabled. The couple had been
married six years although at one point Swift had filed for divorce,
then didn't follow through on the filing. She was eight months
pregnant when she died. Their marriage began on a difficult note.
Four days after their wedding, he started a four-year
prison sentence after pleading guilty to assaulting a Texas state
trooper in 1996 and a Denton County woman in 1997. He also pleaded
guilty to an assault charge for shoving and choking his wife in
March 1996, driving while intoxicated and fleeing a police officer.
In 1992, he pleaded guilty to evading arrest.
Prosecutors said Swift had a history of alcohol
abuse and drug use. He'd quit a new job at a concrete company
because they asked him to take a drug test and when he came home,
his decision sparked an argument with his wife that led to the
slayings, prosecutors said.
Swift spent about 21 months on death row. The
average condemned Texas inmate is in prison about 10 years before
execution. The shortest time on death row was Joe Gonzales, who in
1996 received lethal injection 252 days after he arrived.
Another Texas inmate is scheduled to die next
week. James Jackson, 47, is among at least 11 Texas prisoners with
execution dates. Jackson was condemned for the 1997 slayings of his
two stepdaughters at their Houston home. Jackson's wife, the mother
of the girls, also was killed.
Texas executes third convict this month
Reuters News
Jan 30, 2007
DALLAS (Reuters) - Texas executed a man by lethal
injection on Tuesday for strangling his wife and her mother.
Christopher Swift, a 31-year-old laborer, was the third inmate put
to death since January 1 in Texas, which has the highest execution
rate in the United States.
In a brief summary of the murders, which took
place in 2003, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said Swift
had strangled his wife and battered her in the face. He also
throttled his mother-in-law to death. Swift made no final statement.
For his last meal, he requested a medium-well
done steak with sauce, a salad with ranch dressing, cheddar cheese
and bacon bits, a baked potato with sour cream, two slices of apple
pie, three large rolls, two cokes and a cup of coffee.
Swift was the 382nd person put to death in Texas
since it restored capital punishment in 1982. The state has 10 more
executions scheduled for 2007.
Christopher Swift executed for killing wife,
mother-in-law
Houston
Chronicle
Associated Press - Jan. 31, 2007
HUNTSVILLE — Condemned killer Christopher Swift
was executed Tuesday, spurning appeals that could stop or delay his
execution for the slayings of his wife and mother-in-law in suburban
Dallas. Asked whether he had a final statement, Swift responded:
"No." Seven minutes later, at 6:20 p.m., he was pronounced dead as
five friends watched. No relatives of the victims attended the
execution.
The lethal injection of Swift, 31, was the third
this year in Texas, the nation's most active capital punishment
state. "Receiving the death penalty is what he's wanted from Day One,
from the first day I met him," said Derek Adame, who was one of
Swift's trial lawyers. "He and I had several discussions about it.
It was frustrating for me. That's what makes it hard to deal with.
It's the ultimate punishment."
Evidence showed Swift's 5-year-old son watched as
the former laborer and parolee stabbed and strangled his pregnant
wife, Amy Sabeh-Swift, in the family recreational vehicle in Irving.
Then he took the boy to a mobile-home park in Lake Dallas and
strangled his wife's mother, Sandra Stevens Sabeh, 61, at her home.
The boy was found the next day, April 30, 2003,
wandering the lobby of a Days Inn in Irving where his father had
rented a room. The child told the police his father had killed his
mother and grandmother. Officers found their bodies. Swift was under
arrest within hours.
Defense lawyers tried to show Swift should be
found not guilty by reason of insanity. Prosecutors presented
witnesses who said Swift knew what he was doing and was not insane.
Killer of wife, mother-in-law executed
By
Michael Graczyk - Fort Worth Star
Telegram
Jan. 31, 2007
HUNTSVILLE -- After a relatively brief 21 months
on Death Row, condemned killer Christopher Swift was executed
Tuesday, spurning the appeals process that could have stopped or
delayed his execution for the slayings of his wife and mother-in-law
in suburban Dallas in 2003. Asked whether he had a final statement,
Swift, 31, responded, "No." He was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m. as
five friends watched. No relatives of his victims attended.
The lethal injection was the third this year in
Texas. "Receiving the death penalty is what he's wanted from Day One,
from the first day I met him," said Derek Adame, one of Swift's
trial lawyers.
The average condemned Texas inmate is in prison
about 10 years before execution. The inmate who spent the shortest
time on Death Row was Joe Gonzales, who in 1996 received lethal
injection 252 days after he arrived.
Evidence showed that Swift stabbed and strangled
his pregnant wife, Amy Sabeh-Swift, in the family recreational
vehicle in Irving as the couple's 5-year-old son watched. Then he
took the boy to a mobile home park in Lake Dallas and strangled his
wife's mother, Sandra Stevens Sabeh, 61, at her home.
Prosecutors said Swift had a history of alcohol
abuse and drug use. He'd quit a new job at a concrete company
because he was asked to take a drug test, and when he came home, his
decision sparked an argument with his wife that led to the slayings,
prosecutors said.
Convicted killer dies without giving final
statement
By Stewart Smith - Huntsville Item
January 31, 2007
Christopher Jay Swift offered no words before
receiving the lethal injection Tuesday night. Friends offered their
tears and prayers as they watched. “Look at his face. His face is
completely at peace. He is going to see Jesus,” one friend said.
Swift had insisted on receiving the death penalty
for his crimes. “He didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in
prison,” said Jerry Cobb, one of his trial lawyers. “If convicted,
he wanted the death penalty. He made that very clear to everybody.”
He ordered no appeals to be filed to stop the lethal injection.
Swift was convicted of the 2003 strangling his
29-year-old, eight months pregnant wife, Amy Sabeh-Swift, to death
with his hands inside their recreational vehicle in Irving. He then
took his 5-year-old son to a mobile home park in Lake Dallas and
strangled his mother-in-law, Sandra Stevens Sabeh, 61, at her home.
The 5-year-old boy was found the next day, April
30, 2003, wandering the lobby of a Days Inn in Irving where his
father had rented a room, then left after the child fell asleep.
Hotel staffers fed the boy breakfast and let him watch cartoons in
the lobby but then called police after no one claimed him and he was
getting frightened. The child made a startling disclosure to
officers. “Basically he was saying: ’Daddy killed mommy and he
killed grandma, too,”’ former Denton County Assistant District
Attorney Lee Ann Breading said.
Officers found his mother dead, then his
grandmother. Within hours, Swift was under arrest. “He said from the
start he had done it,” said Earl Dobson, another prosecutor who
tried the capital murder case. Derek Adame, another of Swift’s trial
lawyers, described the experience as frustrating because Swift
insisted there be no serious defense. “Obviously, it’s an uphill
battle, but you’d at least like to be able to fight for the guy,”
Adame said. “I thought we did the best we could, but I have to do
what my client tells me.”
Adame and Cobb presented psychiatric testimony
contending Swift was insane. “The state put on psychiatric testimony
he was not, and jurors found he was not,” Cobb said. “After the case
was over, then he was through. He didn’t want to do anything.”
Swift’s wife worked as an aide at the Denton State School for the
mentally disabled and the couple had been married six years although
at one point Swift had filed for divorce.
Four days after their wedding, he started a four-year
prison sentence after pleading guilty to assaulting a Texas state
trooper in 1996 and a Denton County woman in 1997. He also pleaded
guilty to an assault charge for shoving and choking his wife in
March 1996, driving while intoxicated and fleeing a police officer.
In 1992, he pleaded guilty to evading arrest.
Prosecutors said Swift, who had a history of
alcohol abuse and drug use, quit his job at a concrete company
because they asked him to take a drug test. When he came home, his
decision sparked an argument with his wife that led to the slayings,
prosecutors said.
Another Texas inmate is scheduled to die next
week. James Jackson, 47, is among at least 11 Texas prisoners with
execution dates. Jackson was condemned for the 1997 slayings of his
two stepdaughters at their Houston home. Jackson’s wife, the mother
of the girls, also was killed.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Txexecutions.org
Christopher Jay Swift, 31, was executed by lethal
injection on 30 January 2007 in Huntsville, Texas for the murders of
his wife and mother-in-law.
On 29 April 2003 in Irving, Swift, then 28,
stabbed and strangled his wife, Amy Sabeh-Swift, 27, in the
recreational vehicle where they lived. She was eight or nine months
pregnant. He then drove to Lake Dallas and strangled Amy's mother,
Sandy Sabeh, 61. He then took his five-year-old son, Zachary, who
witnessed both killings, to a motel in Farmer's Branch. Swift
checked into a room after midnight and, after Zachary fell asleep,
left him there.
The next day, a motel employee called the police
to report that an abandoned child was playing unsupervised in the
lobby area. Upon their arrival, Zachary told police officers that
his father left him there the night before after killing his mother
and grandmother.
A trace of Swift's debit card led authorities to
a Dallas motel where Swift was hiding out. He was arrested and
confessed to killing both women and abandoning his son. He said that
voices in his head and his son encouraged him to strangle the women.
The day after his arrest, Swift told a Dallas television station in
a jailhouse interview that he committed the murders because Zachary
"was giving me the order to do it."
Swift had previous arrests for assault, driving
while intoxicated, and evading arrest. One incident involved
striking a police officer with his vehicle in December 1996. Another
involved hitting his mother on the head and face and threatening her
with a knife in January 1997.
Swift was convicted in both of these cases and
received a 4-year prison sentence. Information on the length of time
he served on this sentence was not available for this report.
Prosecutors in Dallas County, where Mrs. Sabeh was killed, yielded
to Denton County, where Amy Swift was killed. Swift was tried in
Denton County for the capital offense of killing two people in one
criminal event.
At his trial, prosecutors presented evidence that
on the day of the killings, Swift had quit his job because his
employer asked him to take a drug test. This decision sparked an
argument with his wife, leading up to the killings. By the time of
his trial, Swift had decided that the wanted to be executed for his
crime. He refused to allow his attorneys to bring any witnesses in
his defense.
His lawyers presented an insanity defense. A jury
convicted Swift of capital murder in April 2005 and sentenced him to
death. "The voices haunt me daily, and death is going to be the only
thing that takes them away," Swift told the judge at the end of his
trial.
Under Texas law, all death sentences are
automatically appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Swift
waived his right to counsel in this appeal, and the court determined
that he was mentally competent to make the decision to represent
himself. Swift did not file a brief on his behalf. After reviewing
the trial record, the appeals court affirmed the conviction and
sentence in September 2006. Swift did not pursue any further appeals
and waived his right to do so.
The condemned man also wrote several letters to
the court asking for a swift execution date. "I am writing to you
one final time to plead with you to set my execution date ahead of
those already scheduled," he wrote on 19 October 2006. "While others
dread their approaching executions, I am very anxious to be executed
and go to heaven to be reunited with my loved ones who understand
what those on Earth cannot, i.e. the forgiving power of the Lord."
Swift declined request for interviews in the
weeks leading up to his execution. At his execution, Swift declined
to make a final statement. He was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m.
ProDeathPenalty.com
Amy was strangled and stabbed to death by her
husband, Christopher Jay Swift, then 28. The couple had been married
for six years, although they had filed for divorce at one point. On
the day of the murders, Swift had quit a job he had recently gotten
at a concrete company. With a history of drug and alcohol abuse,
Swift did not want to take a required drug test and his decision led
to an argument with Amy. Amy was eight months pregnant at the time
of her death. Amy was found dead in her home at Irving RV Park on
April 30, 2003.
According to authorities, after killing Amy,
Swift drove to Amy's mother's home and killed her. Sandra's body was
found the same day at Kingswood Mobile Home Park in Lake Dallas. Amy,
an aide at a state school for the mentally disabled, had been
strangled and stabbed in her Dallas County home. Amy's unborn child
also died. Amy's mother was strangled.
Swift had previously pled guilty to misdemeanor
assault charges for shoving and choking his previous wife as well as
driving while intoxicated and fleeing a police officer in 1996. Four
days after their wedding, Swift had begun a 4-year sentence
following a guilty plea for assaulting a Texas state trooper in 1996
and assaulting a woman in Denton County in 1997.
Evidence showed that Amy's 5-year-old son Zachery
witnessed both deaths. After the two women were killed, Swift
checked into a motel in Farmers Branch where he abandoned Zachery
after he fell asleep. Swift checked into another motel and got some
beer. Zachery was found the next day, wandering in the lobby of the
motel.
Hotel employees fed him breakfast and let him
watch cartoons in the lobby, then called police after no one claimed
him and he was getting frightened. Once police arrived, Zachery told
them that his father had killed his mother and his grandmother.
Officers found their bodies and Swift was arrested within a few
hours.
Demaction.org
Christopher Swift - Jan. 30, 2007 - TX
Do Not Execute Christopher Swift!
In April 2003, Christopher Swift killed his wife
and later that day killed his mother-in-law. Swift represented
himself at his trial.
Texas should not execute Christopher Swift.
Executing Swift would violate the right to life, as proclaimed in
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and would constitute the
ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment. Ineffective
assistance of counsel and mental illness are at issue in this case.
Swift has stated that he believed his 5-year old son wanted him to
commit the murders, and that his mother-in-law would have been happy
about her daughter’s death. Swift’s mental illness and lack of
counsel should be carefully examined in this case.
Please write to Gov. Rick Perry on behalf of
Christopher Swift!
Swift v. State,
999 S.W.3d 385 (Tex.Cr.App. 1999) (Direct Appeal).
Swift v. Dretke, 182 Fed.Appx. 329 (5th
Cir. 2006) (Habeas).
