Gaylon Walbey

Parties and case names

• Gaylon George Walbey Jr. was the defendant in a capital-murder case.
• The appeal involved Doug Drekte and Nathaniel Quarterman.

Timeline

• 1993-05-04 — Walbey was sentenced to die for the May 4, 1993 slaying of Marionette Beyah.
• 1994-08-12 — Walbey was sentenced to death on August 12, 1994.
• 2009-01-23 — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed Walbey’s death sentence; the case remained on death row while prosecutors decided whether to appeal the reversal.
• 2009 — The death sentence was overturned.

Background

Gaylon George Walbey Jr. was 34 at the time of sentencing. He was sentenced to death for the May 4, 1993 slaying of Marionette Beyah, who had been his foster mother in 1988 and 1989.

The offence

Police found Marionette Beyah, 46, bludgeoned to death inside her island home. Police said Beyah interrupted Walbey’s burglary of her residence.

Investigation

Police found Beyah bludgeoned to death inside her island home. Police said she interrupted Walbey’s burglary of her residence.

Trial

Walbey had originally agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence, but he changed his mind.

Guilty plea context and withdrawal

Ezell said:

• “There was a prisoner from death row at the court house for a hearing, and they put him in the same holding cell with the prisoner,” Ezell said.
• “The guy talked him (Walbey) into rolling the dice. That prisoner now of course has been executed.”

Sentencing

Walbey was sentenced to death on August 12, 1994 for the capital murder of Marionette Beyah.

Appeal while reversal pending

After the reversal of Walbey’s death sentence, he would remain on death row while prosecutors decided whether to appeal the reversal.

Appeals

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed Walbey’s death sentence in 2009, citing ineffectiveness of counsel during the punishment hearing.

Grounds for reversal

The court said defense attorney Roger Ezell failed to investigate mitigating circumstances of Walbey’s mental state, childhood, and other potentially mitigating circumstances.

The court stated Ezell:

• waited until the week before the hearing to prepare for Walbey’s punishment phase,
• only skimmed the records provided by the district attorney on Walbey’s background,
• failed to contact potential witnesses, namely Walbey’s mother and others who had direct knowledge of Walbey’s “troubled” childhood,
• did not probe Walbey’s relationship to Beyah, even though there were no impediments to conducting an investigation or to hiring a mitigation expert.

Statements by counsel

Ezell said he disagreed with the court’s decision and would have no part in the state’s proceedings regarding Walbey.

The appeal of Walbey’s death sentence had been ongoing for 14 years. Ezell said the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and a federal appeals court judge upheld the death sentence.

New punishment phase or alternative sentence

The appeals court ordered:

• a new punishment phase of Walbey’s capital trial, or
• the imposition of the appropriate noncapital alternative sentence.

Prosecutorial decision on further review

Joel Bennett, 1st-assistant criminal district attorney for Galveston County, said no decision had been made on whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Tom Kelley, a spokesman for the Texas Attorney General, said:

• The state had 14 days to decide whether to ask the appeals court to reconsider its opinion, or
• 90 days to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case.

Other details

• Marionette Beyah was 46 years old.
• Walbey was described as a Galveston man convicted of capital murder in the brutal killing of a college instructor in 1993.