A Trailer Too Close

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it In 1975, aged sixteen, he began a relationship with a local woman. Six months in he became violent, pushing, slapping and hitting her, and controlling where she went. this part of the story is covered for now The woman stayed with him for more than four years out of fear, and on 18 February 1979 she finally ended the relationship. Within two weeks he broke into her home and raped her at knifepoint. She did not call the police the first time. He kept harassing her, and after she heard that he planned to come back she and her sister fled the state to Oklahoma for a few days. details of the account remain covered until revealed She called the police, who searched the house and found Thurman hiding inside with a double-barrel 12-gauge shotgun.

Another girlfriend broke up with him soon afterwards and he stalked and raped her as well; he also cut the head off her stuffed animal and left it on her kitchen counter. From 1981 to 1983 he was in a common-law marriage with another woman, whom he beat intermittently. When she told him she was leaving, he knocked her down, straddled her and choked and punched her. She got a restraining order and he stopped. Through the 1980s and 1990s he worked mainly as an HVAC technician, with mechanic and general labouring work on the side. He met a woman named Sharon, and they married in the late 1980s or early 1990s. Their son was born in 1993. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it By 2001 they were living in a trailer park on the outskirts of Magnolia, Texas, and the marriage had become volatile. this part of the story is covered for now

In the summer of 2001 Sharon left him, took their son and moved in with a man named Guy Fernandez, whose trailer stood directly across the street from Thurman's, about ten feet from door to door. On 30 August 2001 Thurman went to Sharon's mother's house, banged on the sliding glass door and demanded to see Sharon. Her mother told him she was not there and told him to leave. He came back fifteen minutes later and threatened that Sharon was going to get hers and that he was going to get Guy too. Sharon then got a second protective order covering her mother's house. On 25 September 2001 county deputies came to Thurman's trailer and served him with a protective order which also gave Sharon custody of their son until the matter was resolved. The boy was walked across the street to his mother's house. Thurman went into his room and came out in a head-to-toe black karate outfit, carrying a .45-calibre handgun in one hand and a samurai sword in the other. He paced the trailer silently, saying he was mad and was going to do something stupid. details of the account remain covered until revealed

Thurman suddenly ran out of the front door. Sharon and Guy were getting out of a pickup truck in the driveway across the street. He opened fire as soon as he saw them, shooting Sharon seven times in the yard as she ran. Their eight-year-old son was still in the truck and watched his father chase his mother around the yard shooting at her. Guy ran into the mobile home and Thurman followed, shot him twice in the head and beat him with the gun hard enough to break it, leaving pieces of the weapon and brain matter scattered through the trailer. Thurman went back to his own trailer, saying 'I messed up', then cried and threatened to kill himself. The boy ran across the street and hid in his father's trailer. Thurman barricaded himself inside with the child and held police at bay for two hours before releasing the boy and surrendering. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed In the penalty phase former girlfriends testified that he had stalked and raped them after their relationships ended, and one described the stuffed animal's head on her counter. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed A federal habeas petition was denied in February 2008. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it In 2011 the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court and Thurman did not petition the Supreme Court. this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed He told the victims' relatives that it made him sick for them to look at him like that, and his last words were: 'All I want to say is I'm innocent. I didn't kill my wife. Jack Leary shot my wife, then her dope dealer, Guy Fernandez. Don't hold it against me, Bill. I swear to God I didn't kill her. Go ahead and finish it off.' As the drugs began he said, 'You can taste it.' the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it