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The clock is ticking
By Yvonne Mintz - The Facts
Published August 18, 2002
LIVINGSTON — A Freeport parolee
likely will go to his death
Tuesday claiming he did not
touch the teen-ager most people
believe he murdered.
Gary Wayne Etheridge is set to
die by lethal injection at 6 p.m.
Tuesday in the prison Death
House in Huntsville.
After years of extensive appeals, Etheridge says he’s ready.
“I’m more than excited to get
out of this tired old fat body,”
Etheridge said. “They can’t
kill the spirit.
“I may die next Tuesday, but
there’s not a person on Earth that
won’t die and be judged by Jesus
Christ,” Etheridge said. “I’m
saved.”
Locked in a cage in a small interview
cubicle on Texas Death
Row in Livingston Wednesday,
Etheridge admitted to stabbing
Gail Chauviere after invading
her home for drug money on Feb.
2, 1990.
But Etheridge said he “never
touched” her 15-year-old
daughter Christie, who was fatally
stabbed and sexually
assaulted in the same attack
at the home in the Tamarind
Woods subdivision near Richwood.
Gail Chauviere survived to testify
against Etheridge but died
three years ago, after suffering
from a disease she contracted
from blood transfusions required
after the attack.
“My hand didn’t stab Christie
Chauviere,” Etheridge said. “I cut
Gail’s throat and stabbed her
three or four times with a little
bitty knife. Christie was stabbed
four or five times with a big
knife.”
He scoffs at reports Gail was
stabbed more than 30 times and
said two weapons prove someone
else was involved.
But law enforcement officials
said there is no evidence of a
second attacker and call that
claim a meager attempt to save
Etheridge’s life.
“As the execution date gets closer,
they get more creative,”
said Gary Stroud, who investigated
the case for the Brazoria
County Sheriff’s Department.
“There is absolutely no evidence
that anyone else was with him.
There was no other blood
found. Witnesses who saw the
car coming and going, they
never saw anyone else.”
Lot of drug problems
In his last interview before
his scheduled execution, Etheridge
recounted his version of the
robbery and murder as if he had
told it dozens of times.
Using legal terms he learned
from 12 years scouring his own
case files, Etheridge spoke
of inadequate representation by his
attorneys, a judge he believed
was out to get him and missed
opportunities for meaningful
appeals.
Etheridge told of a “rocky upbringing”
he said included brothers
who abused him. Almost all members
of his family have been
to prison, he said.
Still, Etheridge doesn’t blame
his family for his actions. He
accepts responsibility for Christie’s
death because it was his
idea to rob the Chauviere home.
Etheridge said he used cocaine
to self-medicate a psychiatric
disorder. His parole officer
denied him the anti-depressants he
needed after he was released
from prison, he said.
“I had a lot of drug problems,”
Etheridge said. “It was all about
getting the drugs and burying
the pain, so then everything
about life was trying to get
money for drugs.”
That was what led him to Gail
Chauviere’s home Feb. 2, 1990.
Etheridge claims he and an acquaintance
he would not name
set out to rob a liquor store.
But they had only a knife, so
Etheridge suggested they instead
rob his employer’s home.
Etheridge had been paroled after
serving less than half of a
10-year sentence for stabbing
an inmate while both were in
prison. Gail Chauviere had given
him a second chance by giving
him a job.
Etheridge said he was trying
to rebuild his life and admits Gail
Chauviere was nice to him.
“That’s something that sticks
in my mind, that beats me up
every day,” Etheridge said.
Etheridge said Christie was a
“sweet, wonderful girl” and
remembers meeting her when he
went to the house to pick up
a puppy her mother gave him.
He didn’t plan to hurt Gail or
Christie in the robbery, but things
got out of hand, Etheridge said.
He only signed the confession
authorities prepared to get his
wife out of jail and his daughter
back from state custody,
Etheridge said.
The memory lingers
The case stuck out, even to veteran
law enforcement officers,
because of the child it involved.
Christie had been hailed as
“Brazoria County’s miracle baby”
after surviving a premature
birth and other problems.
Even more, the murder saddened
people because Gail
Chauviere had helped Etheridge,
keeping him on as a
maintenance worker at condominiums
after learning of his
criminal past.
“Gail was the type of person
that she knew that Gary Wayne
Etheridge was out on parole
and gave him a job in spite of
that,” said John Rhyne, a district
attorney’s office investigator.
“She even, at some point, entrusted
him enough to give him
her home address so that he
could pick up additional monies
for equipment and that sort
of thing.”
Rhyne, a Richwood patrolman at
the time, was the first officer
to approach the house after
Etheridge fled the scene. He saw
Christie on the floor and heard
Gail’s screams.
“On a personal note, it’s a case
that I recall almost daily,” said
Rhyne, now a district attorney’s
office investigator. “I
remember the color of the carpet.
I remember what lamps
were on in the living room.
I remember where the blood was.”
It was among the most heinous
crimes Brazoria County has
seen, Rhyne said.
“We all should trust people,
and we all should trust the system
to do its job and rehabilitate
people and ensure the community
that they are suitable for reentry,”
Rhyne said. “Gary Wayne
Etheridge fell though the cracks,
and it’s obvious that he was
very sick.”
Nothing left to appeal
Since sentenced to death in November
1990, Etheridge has
spent 12 years in cages of various
sizes: a tiny one where he
speaks to reporters and his
wife, a bigger one with a bed and
toilet where he now spends 23
hours of every day and a larger
one where he sees other condemned
inmates and stretches his
legs one hour a day.
He gets visits from his pen-pal
wife, a German woman he met
while on Death Row, but he doesn’t
talk to his mother much
and has seen his daughters,
now 13 and 12, only a few times.
Many of his family members are
“cowards” who never stood
by him, Etheridge said.
He looked upset when reminded
his daughters are approaching
the age when Christie Chauviere’s
life ended.
Etheridge planned to visit with
his wife Friday and Monday. For
Tuesday, he has asked for a
last meal of french fries “and
regular stuff,” but he’s not
sure he’ll eat.
Afterward he expects he will
be strapped to a gurney and killed
by lethal injection.
“I think they’ve got me this
time,” Etheridge said. “There’s
nothing left to appeal.”
Etheridge was scheduled to die
at least twice before. Reprieves
postponed execution dates in
2000 and in June.
This time, the Texas Board of
Pardons and Paroles voted 17 to
0 in recommending Gov. Rick
Perry deny Etheridge’s request
for commutation to a life sentence.
Only a reprieve from Perry or
intervention from the U.S.
Supreme Court could halt the
execution now, said Jim Marcus,
Etheridge’s attorney.
Marcus calls the Etheridge case
a “complete system failure,”
based on his contention that
Etheridge had incompetent
attorneys who should have raised
evidence about his troubled
childhood.
District Attorney Jeri Yenne
has called the case a model for due
process because of the numerous
appeals and delays while
judges studied the case.
Hopeful but doubtful
Stroud plans to attend the execution Tuesday.
“This will be my first,” said
Stroud, now Sweeny’s police chief. “I
just want to see that a guy
gets justice for what he did to
those two women. He essentially
killed both of them.”
Carolyn Barrett, Christie’s sister,
remains hopeful but doubtful
the execution will take place
Tuesday.
“You don’t get your hopes up,”
Barrett said. “It’s not a time for
anybody to be joyful, but it’s
delivering the sentence that was
handed down.”
Etheridge knows people will celebrate
when he dies. He says he
prays for the Chauviere family
and hopes its members gain
solace from his death.
“They think I’m a monster,” Etheridge
said.
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