Robert Coulson executed
Tue Jun 25 2002

HUNTSVILLE - A Houston man accused of murdering five members of his family, including his parents, in a scheme to collect an inheritance almost 10 years ago was executed in the Texas death chamber this evening. Robert Coulson, 33, was condemned for killing his sister and brother-in-law in a murder spree that also included another sister and his adoptive mother and father. The victims were suffocated or fatally beaten with a crowbar, then bound with tape and plastic ties and burned. Firefighters responding to the blaze at the home of Otis Coulson, 66, and his wife, Mary, 54, found the bodies. Also killed were their daughter, Sarah, 21; Robert Coulson's biological sister, Robin Wentworth, 25; and her husband, Richard, 27. Robert Coulson attended their funerals a few days after the Nov. 13,1992 slayings. Hours later, he was arrested for their deaths. Evidence showed two days after the killings, he called the family attorney, inquiring about the size of the inheritance. It was $600,000. "He wanted the money," Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal
said.

Coulson is the 17th Texas inmate to die this year and the first of two this week. The 17 executions equal the total number of lethal injections in Texas last year. Today the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Coulson's requests for a reprieve, a commutation and a conditional pardon. Vote on each was 17-0.

"People saw him rub his eyes to make them red but no one saw him shed any tears," Rosenthal recalled Coulson's conduct at the funeral. "We had police officers watch the funeral and watch him. At one point, he walked
his girlfriend to her car, watched her drive away, then Bob did thislittle dance before he went into the church... "I think the jury hated him." Coulson's roommate at the time of the murders, Jared Althaus, told police he took Coulson to and from the house that day. He later helped investigators build the case. "I agreed to assist Bob in this crime because he told me we would never have to worry about money as long as I was with him," Althaus said in
his confession.

"It's infuriating," Coulson said from death row, denying any involvement in the slayings. "I haven't had a fair day in court." Coulson called Althaus' confession a lie, saying authorities took advantage of his roommate's mental and emotional problems to force him to lie. "It's a bogus case," he insisted. Authorities said Coulson, carrying out a plan he and Althaus had worked on for three months, telephoned each victim and told them he'd meet them
at a particular time at the family's northwest Houston home.
Then they were systematically killed. Their hands and feet were bound, plastic trash bags were tied over their heads and gasoline was poured on the corpses. Althaus said Coulson told him a stun gun purchased to incapacitate the family members didn't work properly after the first two were killed, so he had to suffocate his mother with a pillow and use a crowbar to fatally beat two others. Then a water heater prematurely ignited the fire because of fumes from gasoline. "Bob jumped into the car and said: 'It went all wrong. It didn't go the way I planned it,'" Althaus said.

Coulson had no previous criminal record. Authorities said he had been having financial problems, a contention Coulson denied. He said a business proposition fell through but not because of his own lack of money. "My dad had agreed to loan me the money," he said from death row. Althaus was sentenced to 10 years in prison in exchange for his 1994 guilty plea to murder.

In February 1997, a probate jury assessed $25.6 million in damages against Coulson and Althaus for the killings, but a judge later reduced the verdict to $13.6 million. Lawyers said the monetary award was largely symbolic but resulted in Coulson relinquishing his right to half the $600,000 inheritance. The inheritance went to Sarah Coulson's son, whom she had put up for adoption a month after his birth.

Source: Houston Chronicle

It's horrible what some people do to get money, but the killing by the state, in the name of justice is as horrible, or maybe even more. another black day in history :(

Here's the article that the Huntsville paper wrote. Pretty cold way they wrote about him if I may say so........

Man executed for killing family

By Mark Passwaters/Staff Writer

Professing his innocence to the end, Robert Coulson, a man condemned to death for killing his entire adoptive family as part of a scheme to inherit a $600,000 estate, was executed Tuesday night. The sentence was carried out in the death chamber at the Huntsville "Walls" Unit. Coulson, 34, was sentenced to death in 1994 for killing his adopted mother, father, two sisters -- one of which was not only his natural sister, but six months pregnant -- and a brother-in-law. After luring them to his parent's house to discuss a proposed business deal, he subdued each one and placed plastic bags over their heads. After they died of asphyxiation, he then attempted to burn their bodies.

The prosecution in the case was able to present a large amount of evidence, none of which more damaging than the testimony of Coulson's accomplice and roommate, Jared Althaus.

With his biological father, Bob Bennett and step-mother Beth Bennett watching, Coulson was asked if he had any last words at 6:14 p.m.

"I'm innocent," he said. "I had absolutely nothing to do with my family's murder."

"I want to thank everyone who has supported me," Coulson continued. "I hope they continue the fight. You know who you are. That's all. Thank you, warden."

As Coulson made his "continue the fight" comment, Beth Bennett accidentally hit the plexiglass divider between the witnesses and the death chamber.

"I didn't mean to do that," a visibly shaken Bennett said to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice officer in the room.

As the fatal dose of chemicals was started at 6:14 p.m., Coulson looked at his father and step-mother and mouthed, "I love you."

Glancing quickly at the room where members of the victim's family are usually situated Coulson said, "You know you planted that evidence, Dale Atchetee. You know it and I know it."

Atchetee, a former Houston police detective who worked on the case, was in the room with the father and brother of Rick Wentworth, Coulson's brother-in-law and Robert Danner, Mary Coulson's nephew. According to witnesses in the room, Atchetee -- who was at the front of the room -- continued to look right at Coulson through his statement and afterward.

The planted evidence claim Coulson made stems from an envelope Otis Coulson wrote on, including information about a business deal his adopted son wanted to discuss with him the night of the murders. Police investigators moved the note to a more prominent place on the desk where it was found to photograph it. Coulson's appeals lawyer, Gary Hart, claims the envelope was planted evidence and grounds for a new trial.

Hart's claims led to nothing, as the prosecution admitted the error during the appeals process and federal courts have deemed the moving of the envelope irrelevant.

As Coulson drifted into unconsciousness, Joe Vitela, Polunsky Unit Chaplain said, "Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us."

Vitela and James Morgan, rector of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Huntsville, continued to recite the Litany of the Passion. Once the litany was completed, Morgan said, "Bob, may the blessings of God the father be upon you."

"God forgive us," said Melodee Smith, a Houston Episcopal minister and one of Coulson's attorneys.

Coulson was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m. Shortly afterward, TDCJ officials released a statement from Linda Payne, Mary Coulson's niece, and other members of her family.

"While our grief is incalculable, we are comforted by our deep and abiding faith in God and belief in our justice system," Payne wrote. "Today brings us no joy, only resolution. Robert Coulson committed a horrible crime, he received a fair trial and was found guilty by a jury of his peers. My family agrees with that verdict, and we agree that he must now accept responsibility for his actions."

Members of the Coulson family were all found dead by the Houston Fire Department on the night of Nov. 13, 1992. They had their hands and feet bound and had plastic bags over their head. The official cause of death for all five was listed as asphyxiation, but the bodies also had been doused in gasoline and set on fire.

The next day, Houston Police was alerted to the fact Coulson and his roommate, Jared Althaus, had spent the weekend at Althaus' family farm in Caldwell. Coulson gave a statement to police saying he had stopped by his parent's house on the afternoon of Nov. 12, but nobody was home. Althaus also gave a statement, which was so close to Coulson's it aroused the suspicion of investigators.

On Nov. 15, Althaus recanted his earlier statement which gave Coulson his alibi. Two days later, Althaus confessed his involvement in the killings. In the meantime, police surveillance of Coulson noted a lack of emotion at the funerals for his family members. Indeed, as he was leaving a grave side service, Coulson was seen to smile, snap his fingers, clap his hands and make a dance step on the way to his car.

For his part, Althaus had given police statements describing the entire situation surrounding the murders. He said Coulson had repeatedly stated he was having financial difficulties and that he would be "set" once his family was dead. Coulson then hatched a plan to assemble his entire family in one place so he could eliminate all potential competition to his parents' $600,000 estate.

Althaus said he had dropped Coulson off at his parents' house with a crowbar, gas can and a backpack and then drove off to get gas -- part of Coulson's alibi. When he returned, Althaus said Coulson showed no remorse or visible emotion at the deaths of his family members. Instead, he recounted how his father was "a wimp" and was easily disposed of. He said he had told one of his sisters that he loved her and had hugged her as he put the plastic bag over her head and zip-corded it. He said the fire which killed the five members of his family -- his sister, Robin, was also six months pregnant -- had accidentally started before he could remove the bags from their heads so he could make it appear they died from smoke inhalation.

Althaus agreed to cooperate with the police, taping a conversation between himself and Coulson at a Houston hotel.

"I'm your alibi; you're my alibi," Coulson was recorded as saying. "They don't have any leads. We can do anything we want to in this world."

Coulson was arrested shortly after the taping of that conversation, with his trial starting in June of 1994. Coulson was found guilty of capital murder on June 16 and sentenced to death on June 22. Coulson, who had overruled his attorney's advice and testified in his own behalf, was not able to explain away the testimony of eight prosecution witnesses who claimed he had lied under oath.

Coulson started a Web site and a vigorous letter writing campaign after his sentencing, claiming he was innocent and had been framed. The effort drew little sympathy from the state and federal appeals courts, the United States Supreme Court, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, all of whom rejected Coulson's demands for clemency.

very cold indeed! :(

that is just sad,,

Another one executed by the state of Texas...it's definitely sad. I know Sabine had befriended him and was working very hard to keep him from being executed.....my heart goes out to her.....

mine too. I'm so afraid for the day one of my friends will be killed

same here....