Texas killer asks victims' families for forgiveness before becoming first execution of 2026

A Texas man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend died by lethal injection Wednesday evening, marking the first U.S. execution of the year.

Charles Victor Thompson, 55, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. local time after receiving the injection at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Huntsville Unit. He was found guilty in the April 1998 shooting deaths of his ex-girlfriend, Glenda Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, at the woman’s Houston-area apartment.