HOUSTON (AP) - A drug dealer was sent to death
row for abducting, raping and killing a woman after a bloody
shootout during an apparent botched drug sale.
State District Judge Mike Wilkinson read the
sentence imposed by jurors Friday for Charles Mamou Jr., 24.
Mamou was convicted for the slaying of 17-year-old
Mary Carmouche, who was with a group that met Mamou near the
Astrodome on Dec. 6, 1998. Prosecutors said they believe Mamou and
a member of Carmouche's group might have schemed to steal from the
other.
Mamou opened fire when Carmouche's group
arrived, shooting Terrance Gibson, 22; Kevin Walter, 24 and
Carmouche's date, Dion Holley, 21.
Gibson died from his wounds. Holley and Walter
recovered.
After the shootings, Mamou got in the group's
car and left, with Carmouche still in the back seat. She later was
shot after being forced to perform a sex act for Mamou,
prosecutors said.
Mamou fled to his home state of Louisiana and
was accused of an August 1998 murder in Lafayette, but the charge
was later dismised. A witness also testified Mamou was the
triggerman in a Sept. 5, 1998 slaying of Anthony Williams, 27, in
Houston.
Mamou remains charged in Gibson's death but has
not been charged in connection with Williams' death.
Defense attorneys Wayne Hill and Kurt Wentz
argued during closing arguments that Mamou's connection to the
Williams killing was nebulous and that Mamou was "seduced" by the
drug underworld.