Bryan Eric Wolfe

Case record: Bryan Eric Wolfe

Background

Bryan Eric Wolfe was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in Texas.

Bertha Lemell was an 84-year-old woman who lived in Beaumont, Texas. She was stabbed and her coin purse was found near her body.

Wolfe lived in the same neighborhood as Lemell. Testimony described Lemell as a close friend of Wolfe’s wife, and Lemell babysat the couple’s children.

The offence

On February 15, 1992, the body of Bertha Lemell was found on the floor of her Beaumont home.

A medical examiner testified that the victim had twenty-six stab wounds to the head, trunk, and abdomen.

Lemell’s coin purse was found on the floor near her body. The coin purse was unlatched and contained only a single coin.

Her residence showed no sign of forced entry.

Some black-eyed peas were scattered on the floor. Coins and black-eyed peas were also strewn on the floor.

A friend of the victim, Brenda Vallian, testified that she took Lemell shopping on the day of the offense. Vallian testified that she saw Lemell pull out sixty dollars in cash, pay for groceries with less than twenty dollars, and put the remaining money back into her coin purse.

After the murder, police officers arriving at the scene found the coin purse on the floor, unlatched, and containing only a single coin. Blood was found on the victim’s floor, dresser, two bathroom towels, coin purse, front doorknob, and a knife found at the scene. Blood was also found on top of a locked armoire.

Wolfe was seen within a few blocks of the crime scene shortly before and shortly after the murder.

Wolfe cut himself during the attack, trailing blood out the front door to the driveway. When Wolfe was picked up by police two days later, he had deep cuts on his right hand.

Wolfe said in a statement to police that he had never met the victim and that he was at a church barbecue all afternoon on the day of the killing. He also said he cut his hand on a broken beer bottle.

Authorities believed he cut himself with the knife while he was stabbing the woman.

Investigation

Blood was collected from the victim’s floor, dresser, two bathroom towels, coin purse, front doorknob, and a knife found at the scene.

These blood samples were subjected to DNA testing by the FBI and a private laboratory. A serologist testified that physical characteristics found in Wolfe’s blood matched blood found at the crime scene.

The serologist testified that the physical characteristics occurred in only 0.2 percent of the African-American population.

DNA test results showed that Wolfe’s blood and the blood found at the crime scene shared a DNA pattern that was estimated to appear in approximately 1 in 10 million Caucasians, in approximately 1 in 1.7 million African-Americans, and in approximately 1 in 8.2 million Hispanics.

The DNA on the towels, the victim’s floor, and the victim’s dresser was consistent with Wolfe’s genetic markers.

Arrest

Wolfe was arrested two days after Bertha Lemell was found murdered.

Prior criminal history

Wolfe was previously convicted in Kansas in 1985 for robbery, and he was paroled in 1986.

Wolfe was also sentenced to three years in Louisiana for robbery in 1990, and he was released in 1991.

Wolfe had confessed to committing an armed robbery in 1983 while enlisted in the U.S. Army and posted in Louisiana.

Wolfe had also been convicted for robbing a convenience store in Houma, Louisiana, in 1989.

Court records showed Wolfe absconded from a work-release center.

Trial

In the punishment hearing, a jury found Wolfe guilty of capital murder and answered punishment issues in the State’s favor, sentencing him to death.

Wolfe was convicted of the capital murder of Bertha Lemell committed on February 15, 1992, in Jefferson County.

A jury convicted Wolfe in October 1993.

The trial court entered judgment sentencing Wolfe to death following the punishment hearing.

Defense evidence included a psychologist’s testimony attributing Wolfe’s actions to intoxication and opining about dangerousness in an institutional setting.

The defense also called a correctional officer who testified that Wolfe had been assaulted while in custody awaiting trial.

Sentencing

On October 25, 1993, the court assessed a sentence of death, following a punishment hearing.

The sentencing portion included evidence presented by the prosecutor that Wolfe had confessed to committing armed robbery in 1983, Wolfe was convicted for another robbery in 1989, Wolfe was paroled on work release after serving time in prison for robbery, and Wolfe absconded from the work release center.

The jury determined that a probability existed that Wolfe would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society, and that there were insufficient mitigating circumstances to warrant life imprisonment rather than death.

Appeals

Direct appeal (Texas Court of Criminal Appeals)

Automatic appeal was taken.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed.

The Court of Criminal Appeals held that:

• Evidence was sufficient to support Wolfe’s conviction and to establish that Wolfe had committed the underlying felony of robbery.
• Prospective jurors were properly stricken for cause based on their stated difficulties with imposing the death penalty.
• A prospective juror who had successfully completed probation following felony conviction but had not been formally released of all legal disabilities was properly stricken for cause.
• A lesser included offense instruction was properly rejected.
• Statements by the prosecutor did not violate Wolfe’s Fifth Amendment rights.
• The trial court properly declined to hold a hearing on voluntariness of Wolfe’s confession to an earlier offense admitted during the penalty phase.

The judgment of the trial court was affirmed.

Federal habeas corpus (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit)

After conviction for capital murder was affirmed on appeal, Wolfe filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas denied the petition, and Wolfe appealed.

The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed. The Fifth Circuit held that:

• The district court could not consider a claim that defense counsel entirely failed to subject the prosecution’s case to meaningful adversarial testing making the adversary process presumptively unreliable.
• Wolfe failed to establish a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.
• Wolfe failed to exhaust a claim that defense counsel was ineffective for failing to call Wolfe’s wife as a mitigation witness during the punishment phase.

Outcome

Wolfe’s conviction and sentence remained affirmed through the appellate process described.

Wolfe was executed by lethal injection in Texas.

Timeline

• February 15, 1992 — The body of 84-year-old Bertha Lemell was found on the floor of her Beaumont home after she had been stabbed 26 times.
• Mar. 12, 1992 — A Jefferson County grand jury indicted Wolfe for capital murder.
• Oct. 21, 1993 — A jury found Wolfe guilty of capital murder.
• Oct. 25, 1993 — The court assessed a sentence of death following a punishment hearing.
• Mar. 6, 1996 — Wolfe’s conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
• Mar. 20, 1997 — Wolfe filed an application for writ of habeas corpus in the state trial court.
• May 20, 1998 — Wolfe’s application for writ of habeas corpus was denied by the Court of Criminal Appeals.
• June 4, 1998 — Wolfe filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in a federal district court.
• Sept. 23, 2003 — The federal district court denied Wolfe’s petition.
• Nov. 25, 2003 — The federal district court granted permission to appeal, in part.
• Feb. 25, 2004 — Wolfe requested permission from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to appeal additional issues.
• Nov. 10, 2004 — The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of habeas relief.
• Dec. 15, 2004 — The Fifth Circuit declined to rehear the case.
• Mar. 9, 2005 — Wolfe filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court.
• May 18, 2005 — Wolfe was executed by lethal injection in Texas.
• 6:31 p.m. (May 18, 2005) — Wolfe was pronounced dead.

Other details

Wolfe was scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 18, 2005.

Final Meal: Fried chicken legs, fried pork chops, barbecue ribs, french fries, peach cobbler and a banana.

Final Words: In a final statement while strapped to a gurney in the death chamber, Wolfe thanked family and friends for their support during the years leading up to his execution:

"I will be OK. I am at peace with all of this and I won't have to wake up in prison any more. I love you all. I totally surrender to the Lord. I am ready, Warden."

The opinion citations included:

• Wolfe v. State, 917 S.W.2d 270 (Tex. Crim. App., 1996)(Direct Appeal)
• Ex parte Wolfe, 977 S.W.2d 603 (Tex. Crim. App., 1998)(State Habeas)
• Wolfe v. Dretke, 116 Fed. Appx. 487 (5th Cir. 2004)(Federal Habeas)