Tyrone Cade

Case record: Tyrone Cade

Parties

• Defendant: Tyrone Cade (Black male)
• TDCJ number: 999575
• Prior prison record: #1196245 — 3 year sentence from Collin County for Sexual Assault
• Victims: Mischell Fuller (37) and Desaree Hoskins (18)
• Co-defendants: None

Timeline

• September 6, 2012 — Tyrone Cade was sentenced to death.
• August 29, 2012 — A Dallas County jury imposed a death sentence on Cade following a capital murder conviction.
• August 27, 2012 — A woman who had been convicted of rape testifies in the sentencing phase for Cade.
• August 24, 2012 — A Dallas County jury found Cade guilty of capital murder and rejected an insanity defense.
• August 21, 2012 — Prosecutors showed autopsy photos during Cade’s capital murder trial.
• August 20, 2012 — Dallas County death penalty trial opened for Cade.
• March 28, 2011 — Police said a mother and daughter were found slain at an Irving home after Cade walked into the police department and admitted to the killings.
• March 2011 — Cade killed Mischell Fuller and Desaree Hoskins at their Irving home.
• 03/27/2011 — Date of offence.
• May 30, 2006 — Cade was discharged upon expiration of the sentence from #1196245.
• 2002 — Cade was convicted of sexual assault in Collin County.
• 2003 — Cade violated probation and was ordered to prison for three years.
• 1999 — Cade sexually assaulted a woman who later testified in the sentencing phase for his murders.

Background

Tyrone Cade was received into the case on 09/06/2012 at age 40. His education level was 12. At the time of the offense, he was 39. He was identified as Black, male, with black hair and brown eyes. The case listed his height as 5'09" and weight as 210. His native county and native state were Dallas and Texas. His prior occupation was Forklift Operator, Warehouse.

Cade had a prior prison record #1196245 for a 3 year sentence from Collin County for Sexual Assault. He was discharged upon expiration of the sentence on May 30, 2006.

In the punishment context of the later capital murder case, defense attorneys presented information about Cade’s background, including an allegation of sexual abuse by his late mother, low IQ, depression, constant back pain from a football injury, and an account that Cade’s father suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The prosecution presented the case as a jealousy-driven stabbing and rape.

The offence

Cade started stabbing his girlfriend, Mischell Fuller, with a kitchen knife while they were in bed during nighttime hours. The knife was described as something he kept under the bed.

Fuller’s daughter, Desaree Hoskins, heard screams and was stabbed as she tried to help her mother. Both Fuller and Hoskins died as a result of their injuries.

Cade told police that he stabbed the women dozens of times at their Irving home in March 2011 after secretly recording Fuller having a provocative Skype conversation with her ex-husband. Cade had refused to leave Fuller’s home; he also secretly recorded the Skype conversation.

Cade confessed to sexually assaulting Fuller after he stabbed her.

Autopsy evidence (as described)

Forensic pathologist Jill Urban testified that Hoskins had 39 wounds and Fuller had 28. One wound to Hoskins’ neck went into her spinal cord. Both women had knife injuries that penetrated their lungs.

Investigation

Police said Cade walked into the front lobby of the Irving Police Department at about 8:30 p.m. and called 911.

Officers said that Cade admitted to stabbing Fuller and Hoskins after he heard her talking with her former husband on a recording from a device Cade left under the bed. Investigators said Hoskins was stabbed while trying to save her mother.

Police said Cade was a registered sex offender. Police also said Cade considered suicide and even left a note, and that more than 16 hours after he killed Fuller and Hoskins he turned himself in. Police said Cade turned himself in and confessed in the police lobby.

After the slayings, Cade said he took pictures around the house out of frames and photo albums and burned them. Empty frames and albums were found in a black trash bag inside the house, and charred remains of photos were found in a grill.

Arrest / custody

Police said Tyrone Cade, a 38-year-old registered sex offender, told officers he had killed two people at his home in the 1400 block of Ronne Drive in Irving. Officers went to the residence and found the bodies of Mischell Fuller, 37, and Desaree Hoskins, 18.

Irving Police Officer Aaron Shook testified that Cade turned himself in at the police station, saying that “he had killed a couple of people.” Shook told jurors that he grabbed a knife to question Fuller but then she screamed for her daughter and started kicking, and that he then stabbed them both to death. Shook said Cade handed over three cell phones, and one appeared to have blood on it.

Officer John Argumaniz provided a quote about the timing of Cade’s arrival:

• “When he came in here -- at that late at night, there's not anyone here,” Officer John Argumaniz said. “So what he did was, he used his phone, and then he called and he said, 'Hey, I want to talk to an officer about what took place, so they sent an officer here to talk to him.”

A recording of a 911 call made from the lobby of the police station was played:

• Cade appears to be crying as he says, “I killed two people … Yeah, I killed them … I stabbed them to death.”
• Cade says on the 911 call: “I just snapped.”
• Cade said he wishes he could get the death penalty.
• Cade said he also tried to kill himself but he was “too punkish” to go through with it.

In a video interview played for jurors, prosecutors provided a transcript and Cade made statements:

• “How fast can I go to trial and get it over with? … Get the death penalty, man … just get it over with. I’m just in a hurry, man. I’m ready to die, dude. Wish I could speed it up. I don’t want to have to go through no trial.”

Trial

Charges and proceedings

Cade faced a charge of one count of capital murder in Dallas County.

A jury convicted Cade of capital murder after rejecting his insanity defense.

Insanity defense and mental-state evidence

Defense attorneys argued that Cade was not guilty by reason of insanity, meaning that a mental disease or defect prevented him from knowing right from wrong at the time of the slayings.

A doctor who examined Cade for prosecutors testified that he was not insane at the time of the murders. Defense experts testified it was possible Cade did not know right from wrong, but the experts had not interviewed Cade.

Since Cade’s arrest, he was treated for minor depression, according to testimony, and the case description noted that there was no prior indication of a history of mental illness, although his father suffered from schizophrenia and a bipolar disorder.

Defense attorney Lalon “Clipper” Peale made statements during closing arguments:

• “He snapped. He went off the chain,” Peale told jurors in closing arguments. “They build up and build up.”

Opening statements (as described)

Dallas County First Assistant District Attorney Heath Harris told jurors in opening arguments that they should have no difficulty convicting Cade of capital murder:

• “This case is not a complex mystery,” he said.

Harris told jurors that Cade killed Fuller and Hoskins because Cade was jealous:

• Harris told jurors that Cade killed Mischell Fuller, 37, and her 18-year-old daughter, Desaree Hoskins because Cade was jealous.
• He had recorded Fuller having an intimate conversation on Skype with her exhusband, Carlton Hoskins, and was angry.
• Cade could “turn on the charm in the blink of an eye, turn on the tears in the blink of eye,” Harris said.
• “But he could also turn on the aggression in the blink of an eye.”

Harris told jurors the defense planned to argue that Cade was not guilty by reason of insanity, meaning the defense believed Cade had a mental disease or defect at the time of the slayings that caused him not to know the difference between right and wrong.

Evidence and testimony described during trial

Prosecutors provided autopsy photographs on television screens. Cade looked away, covered his eyes with his left hand, and hung his head as prosecutors showed the images of Mischell Fuller, 37, and Desaree Hoskins, 18.

The case described that Cade turned himself in to Irving police and confessed to the March 2011 slayings.

In the video interview, Cade said he came home after spending the evening with his cousin at a strip club, according to testimony. He said he listened to a recorder he’d set up to document what Fuller did while he was gone. The recording captured the Skype conversation Fuller had with her ex-husband.

Cade told police he tossed and turned in bed before waking up Fuller and pointing the knife at her. He said he wanted to question Fuller but started stabbing her when she wouldn’t remain quiet.

Cade said Fuller fell off the bed trying to get away from him.

Cade said he stabbed Hoskins when she came to help her mother.

Earlier testimony indicated that when Fuller was mad at Cade, she would take down photos of Cade, which upset him.

The case also described that Fuller was trying to end her relationship with Cade and that she was rekindling a romance with her ex-husband. It also said that Cade had recorded a provocative Skype conversation between Fuller and her ex-husband.

Prosecutors said Cade killed Fuller and Hoskins because Cade was jealous and angry.

Verdict on capital murder

On August 24, 2012, a Dallas County jury found Cade guilty of capital murder and rejected his insanity defense. Jurors deliberated nearly 90 minutes before reaching the guilty verdict.

After the jury returned its verdict, Cade sat slumped with a hand over his face during parts of the courtroom proceedings described in the narrative.

Sentencing

The punishment phase followed the capital murder conviction. Prosecutors asked jurors to send Cade to death row.

A Dallas County jury imposed a death sentence on September 6, 2012.

During closing arguments, prosecutors Heath Harris, Rachael Jones, and Jason Hermus told jurors Cade deserved to die for his crimes.

Harris urged jurors to send a message to batterers and impose a death sentence:

• If you “act like the worst of the worst, then we will punish you like the worst of the worst,” Harris said during closing arguments.
• Harris told jurors the insanity defense was “The insanity defense – are you kidding me?”
• Harris characterized the killings and Fuller’s rape as being about “dominance,” “control,” “punishing” and “retribution.”

Jones told jurors Cade was a manipulator and described him as:

• “an evil capital murderer who will be a threat every day for the rest of his life.”

Defense attorneys Lalon “Clipper” Peale, John Tatum, and Richard Franklin urged jurors to show mercy and argued for life without parole rather than death.

The jury decided Cade would commit a future act of violence. Jurors then considered mitigation and voted that there was not anything mitigating that would warrant a life sentence instead of death.

Victim impact statements and related testimony

Hoskins’ aunt, Andrea Hoskins Coats, wiped away tears as she addressed Cade in a victim impact statement after he was sentenced. Coats told Cade:

• “I don’t think you really grasp what you did. I don’t think you understand what you stole,” she said in a soft voice.
• “I can’t believe you would do something to this extent and still fight for your life when you didn’t allow them to.”
• “You don’t deserve mercy. You are a monster.”
• Coats also told Cade she would “pray you never see” the daughter again.
• Coats said she didn’t want Cade’s thoughts passed on to the girl.

The case described Fuller’s mother, Elena Belcher, tearfully testifying earlier about her daughter and granddaughter and becoming emotional when prosecutors showed photos.

After the verdict, Brandy Besio, the mother of Cade’s 12-year-old daughter, sobbed alone on a bench in the hallway and rocked back and forth.

The narrative described that Cade confessed to the murders to Besio and she drove him to the police station where he told police about what he had done:

• “There’s nothing to say,” Besio said Wednesday, wiping her nose and eyes with her shirt.
• “My daughter loses her dad on top of her stepmom and stepsister.”

Other sexual-crime evidence presented in sentencing

A woman testified in the sentencing phase about a rape committed in 1999 when Cade sexually assaulted her. She testified that during the assault Cade repeatedly told her:

• “Don’t make me kill you like the last girl.”

The woman who testified was 21 during the assault, and Today, she’s 33 and was pregnant and in jail on drug charges in the narrative.

The woman told jurors that she had been promised nothing from prosecutors about her drug cases in exchange for her testimony against Cade in the murders.

In the narrative, the woman also testified about her criminal case history:

• She was charged in 2003 with possession of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver.
• She was given deferred adjudication probation, later revoked.

The case described that the woman was not named because The Dallas Morning News typically did not name victims of sex crimes.

The narrative included additional testimony about Cade following another woman for months after she broke up with him in the 1990s, calling frequently from a pay phone near her home, and then leaving her alone.

It also described the woman’s account that she and Cade were “just friends” at the time and that nothing sexual had happened between them before the rape, and that she invited Cade to go out for drinks with her and her coworkers, showed him her apartment, and when she tried to leave for her boyfriend’s house Cade raped her:

• “As soon as she put her hand on the door knob, she said, he grabbed her arm and threw her to the floor.”
• “The more I fought, the worse it got,” she said tearfully, at times covering her face with a tissue.
• “He was just too strong for me to get away from.”
• “To save her life, she said, she pretended to consent and ‘tried to make him think it was OK.’ ”
• She “even convinced him to use a condom.”
• At one point, she was able to grab a small knife and stab him; the wound was superficial and the assault continued.
• The woman said: “He said he was ‘sorry.’ ”

The narrative stated the woman did not tell her parents about the rape because “I was so ashamed.”

Offence-related prior history presented

The case description stated Cade was previously convicted of sexual assault in Collin County in 2002 and that he violated probation in 2003, when a judge ordered him to prison for three years.

It was also described that Cade was kicked out of sex offender treatment, refused orders preventing him from being around children because he wanted to see his daughter, and denied the rape occurred.

Cade’s father had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia; the case stated there was no evidence Cade suffered more than mild depression brought on by his legal situation.

Other details

• Date received: 09/06/2012
• Age at receipt: 40
• Education level: 12 (highest grade completed)
• County: Dallas
• Race: Black
• Gender: Male
• Hair color: Black
• Eye color: Brown
• Height: 5'09"
• Weight: 210
• Native county/state: Dallas, Texas
• TDCJ Number: 999575
• Offender name formatting: Cade, Tyrone
• Codefendants: None
• Victim ages: Fuller 37; Hoskins 18
• Multiple DallasNews.com August 2012 articles provided courtroom and sentencing narratives and included quoted statements by prosecutors, defense attorneys, witnesses, and victim impact statements.