Thomas Bartlett Whitaker

Thomas Bartlett "Bart" Whitaker was born on December{{nbs}}31, 1979, to father Kent, the comptroller of a construction company, and mother Patricia (Trish), an elementary school teacher.{{refn |name = Chevigny18 |{{cite journal |author = Chevigny, Bell |date = August 9, 2018 |title = The Governor, the father, and the murderer |website = Medium.com |url = https://medium.com/@bellchevigny/the-governor-the-father-and-the-murderer-c46e407a11c5 |access-date = January 4, 2022 }}{{efn|

::Note, the reporter for the preceding citation states the potential conflict of interest, of having served as a judge for the PEN Prison Writing Contest, including in its judging of the works of the title subject of this article.{{citation needed|date = July 2024}}

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[Quote] "The state of Texas executes its condemned around six o’clock p.m. Minutes before six on February 22, 2018, Governor Greg Abbott commuted the death sentence of Thomas Bartlett Whitaker to life in prison without parole. Abbot was following the very rare unanimous recommendation of the Board of Pardons and Parole that Whitaker live out his life in prison. For Texas this was astonishing. Nearly 150 people have been executed since a Texas governor last spared a condemned prisoner. Abbot has allowed thirty executions to take place during his three year tenure. ...

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Two of [Whitaker's] essays and a short story won first prizes in the PEN Prison Writing Contest. As a juror for the contest, I first encountered his striking talent in these works.

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The elder of two sons, he grew up in Sugar Land, an affluent, homogeneous community outside Houston. His brother won more of their parents’ attention, because of his learning disability. Whitaker was jealous and withdrew to the world of books. (When he was twelve, he was intensely affected by Albert Camus’ absurdist novel The Stranger ...)." in Houston, Texas.{{citation needed|date = January 2022}}

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Thomas Bartlett, also called "Bart", would become older brother to a second son, Kevin, about three years younger, after which his mother Trish would leave her teaching to provide additional care to Kevin, who had a learning disability. The family lived in Sugar Land, Texas, "an affluent, homogeneous community outside Houston", where Bell Chevigny, writing in Medium.com, describes Bart at age 12 as becoming jealous of his brother, and "withdr[awing] to the world of books", including Albert Camus’ The Stranger (which she notes as a work with murderous parallels).

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Whitaker attended Clements High School where in 1997 as a 17-year-old he received a criminal conviction for a series of seven burglaries that he had "meticulous[ly]" planned, leading other young friends in the spree.{{cite journal | author = Palkot, Stephen | date = February 19, 2018 | orig-date = March 6, 2007 | title = Whitaker Faces Life or Death | journal = Fort Bend Herald and Texas Coaster | url = https://www.fbherald.com/whitaker-faces-life-or-death/article_d8f8ef59-ac48-5463-b4f8-9c226bcf4ca3.html | access-date = January 4, 2022}} In that same time frame,{{when|date=January 2022}} Whitaker's parents had bought him several luxury vehicles.{{cite book | author = Mitchell, Corey | date=2010 | title = Savage Son | publisher = Kensington/Pinnacle | place=New York, NY | isbn=9780786020133 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KJaWBgAAQBAJ | access-date = January 4, 2020}}{{verification needed|date=January 2022}} Note, no access to content is apparently available online.{{rp|Ch.50}}{{page needed|date=January 2022}} Whitaker began attending Baylor University in 2001, transferring from there to Sam Houston State University (SHSU), where he was thought by his parents to be in attendance in late 2003, and from which he was expected to graduate.{{cite news | author = Martinez, Deidre | date=February 19, 2018 | title = Former Baylor Student faces execution | newspaper = Baylor Lariat | publisher=Baylor University |place = Waco, TX | url=https://baylorlariat.com/2018/02/19/former-baylor-student-faces-execution/ | access-date = January 5, 2020}} He had lied to his parents about his continued status in college; varying reports had him dropping out of SHSU months before,{{cite web |author1=Phillips, Harr |author2=Stohler, Elissa |date=2009-05-01 |title=Gov. commutes death sentence for man convicted of masterminding murder of mother, brother |publisher=CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bart-whitaker-execution-reprieve-greg-abbott/ |access-date=2018-09-18 |quote=Unknown to his parents, the dinner celebration marking his graduation was a fraud. He'd dropped out of school months earlier.}} or being present there as a freshman on academic probation. His parents funded his academic pursuits.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} In addition, they purchased a lakeside townhouse in Willis, Texas, for his use, and a $4,000 Rolex watch was given to him as a college graduation present hours before the murders.{{rp|Ch.50}}{{page needed|date=January 2022}}{{Cite web |last=Sant |first=Peter Van |date=2019-01-05 |title=Bart Whitaker case: Sugar Land, Texas father fights to save son, convicted of masterminding deadly attack on family, from execution - CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bart-whitaker-sugar-land-texas-murders-father-fights-to-save-son-from-execution/ |access-date=2024-06-26 |website=www.cbsnews.com |language=en-US}}

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On December 10, 2003, Bart falsely told his family that he was graduating from SHSU. The family drove to the nearby Pappadeaux restaurant in Stafford for a celebratory dinner. Whitaker had enlisted two individuals to carry out the shootings: Chris Brashear, shooter, and Steven Champagne, Brashear's getaway driver. Brashear, dressed in black (including a ski mask), entered the Whitaker family home, took Bart's brother Kevin's gun and ammunition from a locked box in his room, staged a burglary, and then waited near the front door for the Whitaker family to return home.{{cite news |author = Whitaker, Kent | display-authors=etal | date = January 19, 2009 | title=Murder by Family: Read shocking excerpt | publisher = ABC News | website = ABCNews.go.com | url=https://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=7440267&page=1 | access-date=January 4, 2022}}{{third party inline|date=January 2022}}{{third party inline|date=January 2022}}

Upon returning home but before entering the house, Bart said that he needed to collect his cell phone from his parked Yukon{{clarify|date=January 2022}}, knowing that Brashear was armed and waiting inside to kill his family. Kevin entered the family home first and reportedly smiled when he saw the masked Brashear. Brashear shot Kevin once through his chest, and Kevin fell to the floor. Patricia was then also shot in the chest, also falling to the floor. Kent rushed in and was shot in the shoulder with the bullet shattering his humerus.{{third party inline|date=January 2022}} Bart then ran inside and staged a struggle with Brashear, getting shot in his left arm to divert suspicion.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

Brashear then exited through the Whitakers' back door and jumped over the fence into the rear neighbor's yard. The Whitaker's neighbor, Cliff Stanley, was the first person to arrive on the scene. He could see that Kevin was dead, but Patricia was still alive. Patricia died shortly after the start of her airlift by Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital; Bart's father Kent survived. Bart told first responders that he thought the gunman was black, in order to divert suspicion away from Brashear.{{cite book | author = Whitaker, Kent | date=2008 | title = Murder by Family: The incredible true story of a son's treachery and a father's forgiveness | place = New York, NY | publisher = Simon and Schuster | isbn = 9781439139981 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=nX3lHM804ZAC | access-date= January 6, 2022 }}{{page needed|date=January 2022}}{{third party inline|date=January 2022}} See also this {{cite book |title=archived text of Murder by Family |year=2008 |publisher=Howard Books |url=https://archive.org/details/murderbyfamilyin00whit/ |isbn=978-141657813-0 |via=Internet Archive (archive.org) |url-access=registration}}{{page needed|date=January 2022}}{{third party inline|date=January 2022}}

{{expand section | with = further details on this under-reported aspect of the case, with careful checking of existing text for correspondence with appearing sources | small = no | date = January 2022}}

Whitaker left for Mexico in June 2004. He told his father he was going to a club and never returned. Using $3,000 to persuade an acquaintance to assist him, he assumed the name "Rudy Rios" and found work in a furniture shop in Cerralvo, Mexico. There, he developed a relationship with a woman and concocted a story of service in Afghanistan to explain his gunshot wound. He lived there under the false name for over a year. On September 15, 2005, a capital murder warrant was issued against Whitaker.{{cite news | author1 = Martinez-Ramundo, Denise | author2 = Phillips, Harry | date = April 28, 2009 | title = 'Sugar Land' culprit made new life in Mexico | website = ABCNews.go.com | url=https://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=7448586&page=1 | access-date=January 6, 2022}}{{cite news |author=Kumar, Seshadri |date=2005-09-25 |title=Bart Whitaker arrested | newspaper = Houston Chronicle | url=http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/article/Bart-Whitaker-arrested-9856621.php |access-date=2018-01-28}} The acquaintance who had assisted Whitaker to flee became aware of reward money that had been offered for his arrest,{{clarify|date = January 2022}} and communicated Whitaker's whereabouts to the police.

Cooperating with US authorities, Mexican authorities arrested Whitaker without incident under immigration charges. In September 2005, Whitaker was handed over to U.S. authorities at the border town of Laredo, Texas, where he was arrested for capital murder.

{{expand section | with = a more encyclopedic treatment based on reliable secondary sources from third-parties, sources that allow statement in trial date order of the people involved in the prosecution and defense, the witnesses and the dates of their presenting evidence, the actual progression of evidence presented by each side, etc | small = no |date=January 2022}}

Whitaker was refused a plea bargain in exchange for his admission of guilt by District Attorney John Healey, and was instead tried for capital murder. The trial began in March 2007, led by prosecutor Fred Felcman{{cite news |author=Hanson, Eric |date=2007-03-02 |title=Testimony ends in Whitaker's murder trial |newspaper = Houston Chronicle |url=https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Testimony-ends-in-Whitaker-s-murder-trial-1839373.php |access-date=2018-02-15}}{{cite news | title = Reprieve for man who plotted own family's murder | date = February 20, 2018 | website = EuropeWorldNews.com | url=https://www.europeworldnews.com/reprieve-for-man-who-plotted-own-familys-murder/ | access-date=January 4, 2022}}{{efn|

Fred Felcman, the original prosecutor in the case, said the board made its decision purely because of the father’s forgiveness, and disregarded the large number of others affected by the murders. He said testimony from psychiatrists and the family’s investigators who [had stated that] Bart was manipulative was disregarded.}} before 400th District Court Judge Clifford Vacek and a Fort Bend County jury. Evidence was presented that Whitaker had recruited two individuals, Steve Champagne and Chris Brashear, ages 24 and 25 at the time of the 2007 trial respectively,{{cite news |author=Hanson, Eric |date=2007-11-19 |title=Driver in Sugar Land murder plot gets 15 years |newspaper = Houston Chronicle |url=http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Driver-in-Sugar-Land-murder-plot-gets-15-years-1622371.php |access-date=2017-04-25}} Champagne to be the getaway car driver and Brashear to carry out the shootings in Whitaker's plan to murder his immediate family.

Early evidence was presented that Whitaker had previously recruited others in abortive plots to murder his family, plots involving a co-conspirator named Adam Hipp, who had attended Clements High School with Whitaker.{{cite court |litigants=Thomas Bartlett Whitaker v. The State of Texas |vol= 286 |reporter=S.W.3d |opinion= 355 |pinpoint= 355 and final |court= Tex. App. |date= 2009 |url= https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/court-of-criminal-appeals/2009/18518.html |quote= [No. AP-75,654] From Cause No. 42,969 in the 400th District Court / Fort Bend County / Hervey, J., delivered the opinion of the Court in which Keller, P.J., Meyers, Womack, Keasler, Holcomb and Cochran, JJ., joined. Price, and Johnson, JJ., concurred ... The judgment of the trial court is affirmed. / Hervey, J. / Delivered: June 24, 2009}}{{Cite web |last=Palkot |first=Stephen |date=2007-03-02 |title=Whitaker friends, former girlfriend testify |url=https://www.fbherald.com/news/whitaker-friends-former-girlfriend-testify/article_7925ecb8-4069-5421-bba9-bc685d7c6b81.html |access-date=2024-06-26 |website=Fort Bend Herald |language=en}} At the trial, Hipp stated that he had contacted the Sugar Land Police Department with information about previous plots after he heard about the Whitaker family murders in 2003; he was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying for the prosecution against Whitaker.{{Cite web |last=Palkot |first=Stephen |date=2007-03-02 |title=Whitaker friends, former girlfriend testify |url=https://www.fbherald.com/news/whitaker-friends-former-girlfriend-testify/article_7925ecb8-4069-5421-bba9-bc685d7c6b81.html |access-date=2024-06-26 |website=Fort Bend Herald |language=en}}{{rp|Ch.10}}{{page needed|date=January 2022}}

The early testimony from Hipp{{when|date = January 2022}} described a first Whitaker plan to set a lake house owned by his grandmother on fire "to kill his parents, brother and other relatives," a plan that never went beyond discussions, but one that included a ruse as an element—the defendant's "com[ing] out of the blaze with burns so that it would appear he had narrowly escaped." Hipp, who admitted on cross-examination that his participation in Whitaker's schemes had been "motivated by money"—police testified that Whitaker stood to inherit the family estate, valued at $1 million—further testified that in December 2000, prior to the murders of which he stood accused, Whitaker had made another preempted plan, this time to "ambush his parents and brother as they entered their home after a dinner outing," a plan noted by the Houston Chronicle to be "virtually identical to the one [Champagne would soon testify] was actually carried out three years later." Trial judge Vacek handling of the prosecution's use of a phone recording between Hipp and Whitaker would become an element of the defense's later appeal of the verdict.{{primary source inline|date = January 2022}}

In other early testimony, Steve Champagne described Whitaker recruiting him to be the getaway driver for Whitaker's eventual 2003 plan to murder his immediate family, and his testimony included the detail that Whitaker's gunshot wound was a ploy to make it look like he was a victim, too. Prosecutors presented evidence that although it wasn't Whitaker who shot his family members, he was responsible for the murders because he played the leading part in the conspiracy to commit the murders.{{cite AV media |people= "IamWhoWeR Mulhall" [video post by] |date= June 19, 2017 |title= Bart Whitaker on the stand |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejDLuUFvJLc |via=YouTube |access-date= January 5, 2022 |format=video |time= |location= |publisher={{grey|[pirated]}} |id= }}{{full citation needed|date=January 2022}}{{primary source inline|date=January 2022}} Note, the time-stamp of the point in this 4:22 video that is being referenced has not been provided.{{better source needed|date=January 2022}}

The prosecution's theory of motive focused on financial gain, with evidence variously described as pointing to Whitaker standing to inherit "about $1.5 million" after the death of his parents and brother, or that he had wanted to capitalize on a million-dollar life insurance payout.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} At trial, it was noted that Whitaker had access to an $80,000 trust fund from his grandparents although he testified that he did not know he could access it.{{rp|Ch.53}}{{page needed|date=January 2022}} Whitaker denied prosecution claims regarding the insurance profit motive, arguing that the only life insurance policy the family had was for $50,000 on his father's life.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}{{clarify|date=January 2022}}

Kent Whitaker had already forgiven his son and his co-conspirators for their parts in the murders (reported on as early as 2007),{{cite news |author = Kever, Jeannie | date=2007-10-19 | title=Father forgives son who had mom, brother killed | newspaper = Houston Chronicle | url=http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Father-forgives-son-who-had-mom-brother-killed-1635659.php | access-date=January 4, 2022}} and had tried at the time of his son's trial, years earlier, to persuade the jury not to deliver a death sentence.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

On Friday, March 2, 2007, prosecutor Fred Felcman and the State of Texas rested the prosecution's case in the capital murder trial for Thomas Bartlett Whitaker's role in the deaths of his brother and mother. Randy McDonald, attorney for the defense, rested their case on the same day, without calling witnesses, and judge Vacek scheduled closing arguments for the morning of March 5. After closing arguments, the case went to the jury. After deliberation the Fort Bend County jury convicted Whitaker of capital murder, under the Texas law of parties.{{verification needed|date=January 2022}}{{third party inline|date=January 2022}} The trial had lasted six days in total; the "jury deliberat[ed] for 2 hours, and sentenced Whitaker to death."

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In a plea bargain worked out with prosecutors, Chris Brashear received a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 30 years for his role in the murders; Steven Champagne received 15 years after serving as the main witness for the prosecution.

Whitaker appealed his death sentence, suggesting nine points of error. In 2009, the state appeals court found in favor of the appellant on none of these points of law.{{primary source inline|date = January 2022}}

On October 1, 2013, Whitaker and two death row convicts, Perry Williams and Michael Yowell, sued Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) directors Brad Livingston and Williams Stephens; James Jones, senior warden at the TDCJ's Huntsville prison, where executions take place; and unknown executioners.{{Cite news |last=Langford |first=Cameron |date=October 3, 2013 |title=Lethal Injection Change in Store, TX Inmates Say |url=https://www.courthousenews.com/lethal-injection-change-in-store-tx-inmates-say/ |access-date=June 26, 2024 |work=Courthouse News Service}} The lawsuit questioned the purity of the drug—pentobarbital—used to execute prisoners in the Texas prison system. On October 4, 2013, the case was dismissed for Whitaker and Williams because neither had been issued execution warrants at the time of the lawsuit. On October 9, 2013, Yowell was executed with the drug in question after U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes refused to stay his execution.{{Cite news |last=Barron |first=Bonnie |date=October 9, 2013 |title=Death Row Inmate Appeals to 5th Circuit |url=https://www.courthousenews.com/death-row-inmate-appeals-to-5th-circuit/ |access-date=June 26, 2024 |work=Courthouse News Service}} Whitaker and Williams later appealed to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the original dismissal.{{Cite news |last=Hoffberger |first=Chase |date=July 15, 2016 |title=Death Watch: A First Time for Everything |url=https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2016-07-15/death-watch-a-first-time-for-everything/ |access-date=June 26, 2024 |work=The Austin Chronicle}}{{Cite news |last=Christian |first=Carol |date=December 10, 2013 |title=Texas Death Row inmates appeal suit over untried execution drugs |url=https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/texas/article/texas-death-row-inmates-appeal-suit-over-untried-5051797.php |access-date=June 26, 2024 |work=Chron.com / Houston Chronicle}}{{Cite news |last=Barron |first=Bonnie |date=December 9, 2013 |title=Death-Row Challenge Is Premature, Judge Rules |url=https://www.courthousenews.com/death-row-challenge-ispremature-judge-rules/ |access-date=June 26, 2024 |work=Courthouse News Service}} This case continued back and forth in courts for several years. In 2015, the Texas Attorney General's office agreed to test the doses of pentobarbital for Whitaker and Williams shortly before their executions. Whitaker withdrew his appeal pertaining to the purity of the drug used, pending at the Supreme Court of the United States, just before a decision by the Texas Governor to grant clemency and commute his sentence. The Supreme Court formally refused to hear the appeal on February 26, 2018.{{Cite web |date=2018-02-26 |title=Spared ex-Texas death row inmate loses Supreme Court appeal |url=https://apnews.com/general-news-b60a4dea46af45ca8e1c5c8a4f6b80b1 |access-date=2024-06-26 |website=AP News |language=en}}

After losing a separate appeal in the federal courts early in 2017,{{cite news | author = Graczyk, Michael | date = October 10, 2017 | title = Man condemned in family murder plot loses high court appeal | magazine = U.S. News & World Report | agency = Associated Press | url = https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/texas/articles/2017-10-10/man-condemned-for-family-murder-plot-loses-high-court-appeal | access-date=January 5, 2022}} Whitaker's legal team appealed his claims to the U.S. Supreme Court.{{refn |name = SuprCt1 |{{cite court |litigants= Thomas Bartlett Whitaker, Petitioner v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division |vol= |reporter= |opinion= |pinpoint= |court=U.S. |date=October 10, 2017 |url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/101017zor_2d83.pdf | quote=[Case] No. 17-5080, Capital Case. Order List: 583 U.S. / Tuesday, October 10, 2017 (12 pp.) / Certiorari Denied / 17-5080 Whitaker, Thomas B. V. Davis, Dir., TX DCJ (p. 6). NOTE: volume, reporter, etc. UNKNOWN.}}{{efn|1=For list of the Supreme Court record of all proceedings and orders (and other information) stemming from the July 6, 2017 U.S. docketing of the appeal of the April 4, 2017 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (lower court, case no. 16-70013), see {{cite web |url=http://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/17-5080.html |title=No. 17-5080 *** CAPITAL CASE *** |publisher=Supreme Court of the United States |access-date=January 6, 2022}} }} }}{{primary source inline|date=January 2022}} The appeal was certiorari denied. On November 1, 2017, his death warrant was signed, scheduling his execution for February 22, 2018.{{cite news | author = Blakinger, Keri | date = November 6, 2017 | title = Judge sets execution date for Sugar Land man who had family killed for $1 million inheritance | newspaper = Houston Chronicle | url = https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Judge-sets-execution-date-for-Sugar-Land-man-12336728.php | access-date=January 5, 2022}}

Alongside the legal submission from the Whitaker legal team—an 18-page document from Whitaker lawyers Keith S. Hampton and James Rytting (the latter at Hilder & Associates),{{cite web |url=https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4346607/Whitaker-Clemency.pdf |title=Before the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles / Request for Commutation of Death Sentence to a Lesser Penalty |author1=Hampton, Keith S. |author2=Rytting, James |website=assets.documentcloud.org |access-date=January 5, 2022}}{{better source needed|date=January 2022}}{{primary source inline|date=January 2022}} Whitaker's father, Kent, also appealed, cooperating with the legal team's submission and writing a letter in the public forum of the Houston Chronicle on January 18, 2018, asking that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles "spare my son".{{cite news | author = Whitaker, Kent | date = January 18, 2018 | title = A father's plea: Spare my son [Friday letters] | newspaper = Houston Chronicle | url = http://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/letters/article/Friday-letters-A-father-s-plea-Spare-my-son-12509000.php | access-date= January 5, 2022}}{{primary source inline|date=January 2022}} Board Chairman, David G. Gutiérrez,{{cite web |url=https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/bpp/brd_members/GutierrezD.html |title=Members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles – David G. Gutiérrez, Chair |date=April 6, 2021 |website=tdcj.texas.gov |access-date=August 1, 2022}} also met with Kent Whitaker for a half hour.{{cite AV media |people = Kelly, Megyn & Whitaker, Kent |date= February 6, 2018 |title= Father fights to save son who murdered mother and brother |lang = en |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzhnvHNgPCA |access-date= January 5, 2022 |format= streaming video |place = New York, NY |publisher=The Today Show |via=YouTube.com }}{{full citation needed|date=January 2022}} Note, the time-stamp of the point in this 10:29 video that is being referenced has not been provided.{{full citation needed|date=January 2022}}

On February 20, 2018, in a rare decision, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended that the death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/texas-parole-board-recommends-killer-be-spared-from-death/2018/02/20/e8c31e50-1680-11e8-930c-45838ad0d77a_story.html |title=Texas Parole Board Recommends Killer Be Spared From Death |author1=Weissert, Will |author2=Graczyk, Michael |date=February 20, 2018 |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=February 20, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180221023747/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/texas-parole-board-recommends-killer-be-spared-from-death/2018/02/20/e8c31e50-1680-11e8-930c-45838ad0d77a_story.html |archive-date=February 21, 2018}} The seven-member Board unanimously recommended clemency to Republican Governor Greg Abbott,{{cite news |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2018-02-21/texas-governor-weighs-parole-boards-advice-on-inmates-fate |title=Texas Governor Weighs Parole Board's Advice on Inmate's Fate |author=Graczyk, Michael |date=February 21, 2018 |newspaper=U.S. News & World Report |agency=Associated Press |access-date=January 5, 2022}} the first time it had done so unanimously since 2009.

Abbott accepted their recommendation and commuted Whitaker's death sentence, noting that Whitaker had "voluntarily and forever waived any and all claims to parole in exchange for a commutation of his sentence from death to life without the possibility of parole." This was the first commutation of such a sentence from Abbott and the first from a Texas Governor since 2007. Abbott cited the fact that Whitaker did not fire the gun and that his father, Kent, "insists that he would be victimized again if the state put to death his last remaining immediate family member," as the reasons for the commutation. {{Cite news |date=February 22, 2018 |title=Man who plotted his family's murder will not be executed, governor says |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-plotted-familys-murder-executed-governor/story?id=53274744 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128054914/https://abcnews.go.com/US/man-plotted-familys-murder-executed-governor/story?id=53274744 |archive-date=November 28, 2023 |access-date=June 25, 2024 |work=ABC News}} Abbott also said that “The totality of these factors warrants a commutation of Mr. Whitaker’s death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Mr. Whitaker must spend the remainder of his life behind bars as punishment for this heinous crime.”{{cite press release |publisher=Office of the Texas Governor | date = February 22, 2018 |title=Governor Abbott commutes death sentence of Thomas Bartlett Whitaker | website = Gov.Texas.gov | url = https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-commutes-death-sentence-of-thomas-bartlett-whitaker | access-date=January 5, 2022}}{{cite press release |author1 = Abbott, Greg |author2 = Pablos, Rolando B. | date = February 22, 2018 | series = Proclamation of the Governor of the State of Texas | title = [Commutation of death sentence of Thomas Bartlett Whitaker] | website = Gov.Texas.gov | url = https://gov.texas.gov/uploads/files/press/Governor_Abbott_Commutes_Sentence_Of_Thomas_Whitaker_02222018.pdf | access-date=January 5, 2022}} See also {{cite press release |url=https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/proclamation-commuting-death-sentence-of-thomas-bartlett-whitaker |title=unformated, digital version}}

Whitaker responded to the commutation of his sentence by saying, "I am thankful for this decision, not for me but for my dad."{{cite web | author = Arnold, Robert | date = February 22, 2018 | title = Whitaker statement to prison officials | website = Twitter.com | url=https://www.twitter.com/KPRC2Robert/status/966822280180518912 | access-date=2018-03-02}} Whitaker had previously stated his strong opposition to the idea of life without the possibility for parole and wrote in his blog from prison:{{Blockquote

|text=[Life without parole], however, offends and assaults everything I believe in. It irrevocably denies any possibility of rehabilitation; it eviscerates hope entirely. It is for this reason that I would never sign for it, even if that were the only way to evade a return to death row. [Thomas Bartlett Whitaker, February 17, 2012]{{cite web | author = Whitaker, Thomas Bartlett | date = February 17, 2012 | title = In response to Feministe | website = MinutesBeforeSix.blogspot.com | url=http://minutesbeforesix.blogspot.com/2012/02/in-response-to-feministe.html | access-date=2018-02-23}}

}}

Whitaker had earlier stated, when his execution was still expected, that he felt that his father would be further victimized by the execution.{{cite web | date=2012-08-01 | title=Bart Whitaker talks about eventual execution | website = Click2Houston.com |

url=http://www.click2houston.com/news/bart-whitaker-talks-about-eventual-execution | access-date=2017-04-25}}

{{multiple issues | section = yes |

{{expand section | with = the full set of cases, properly presented in legal format, chronologically, with brief annotation identifying the nature of each proceeding | small = no | date = January 2022}}

{{format citations | section | date = January 2022}}

}}

• {{cite court |litigants=Thomas Bartlett Whitaker v. The State of Texas |vol= 286 |reporter=S.W.3d |opinion= 355 |pinpoint= |court= Tex. Crim. App. |date= 2009 |url= https://law.justia.com/cases/texas/court-of-criminal-appeals/2009/18518.html |quote= }} Finalisation of Whitaker's conviction within the Texas system. Case No. AP-75,654, arising from Cause No. 42,969 in the 400th District Court, Fort Bend County, Texas. The court opens, noting that the Appellant did not "challenge the sufficiency of... evidence" supporting the original conviction for capital murder, appealing only the sentence of death, there raising "raises nine points of error". The court cursorily rejected five as having been earlier decided (without subsequent change in court opinion). Four others the Court addressed as new arguments, regarding the prosecutions reference at trial to Whitaker's original pre-trial "proffer" for penalty other than death and its omission from the trial record, "nonuniform 'application of the law'" during trial and sentencing, and admission at trial of arguably prejudicial parts of a recording related to the 2001 murder plot; the Appellant argued these constituted reversible error denying Whitaker's state and federal constitutional rights to a fair trial. The Court concluded, "[f]inding no merit in any ... points" and "affirmed the judgment of the trial court", including sentence.
• Thomas Whitaker, Perry Williams and Michael Yowell v. Brad Livingston et al. (S.D. Tex. October 1, 2013, [https://lrl.texas.gov/scanned/archive/2013/22061.pdf Case 4:13-cv-02901]). Whitaker, Williams, and Yowell argued that the drugs used for lethal injection in Texas prisons "runs a substantial risk of grave pain."
• {{cite court |litigants=Thomas Whitaker; Perry Williams, v. Brad Livingston, Executive Director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice; William Stephens, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division; James Jones; Unknown Executioners |vol= |reporter= |opinion= |pinpoint= |court= 5th Cir. |date= 2015 |url= https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca5/13-20750/13-20750-2015-01-22.html |quote= }} "Before Prado, Elrod, and Graves, Circuit Judges. / Per Curiam / Pursuant to 5th Cir. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in ... 47.5.4." Case No. 13-20750, Appeal of the Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(1) dismissal, by the district court, of a defendant civil action that had asserted that their rights to due process, access to the courts, and punishment not cruel or unusual were violated. Here, the order of the district court was vacated, and the case remanded "so that Whitaker [and Williams be] able to fully develop ... claims based on the existing protocol for an appropriate trial on the merits."
• {{cite court |litigants= Thomas Bartlett Whitaker, Petitioner v. Lorie Davis, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Correctional Institutions Division |vol= |reporter= |opinion= |pinpoint= |court=U.S. |date=October 10, 2017 |url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/101017zor_2d83.pdf }} Appeal of Whitaker's case to the U.S. Supreme Court, Case No. 17-5080, Capital Case, docketed on July 6, 2017, information drawn from a posting of the Order List for 583 U.S. for Tuesday, October 10, 2017 (entry on p. 6 of 12 pp.). For the Supreme Court record listing all proceedings and orders arising from the July 6, 2017 U.S. docketing of the appeal of the April 4, 2017 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (lower court, case no. 16–70013), see [http://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/17-5080.html this record], accessed January 6, 2022. The petition was certiorari denied on October 10, 2017, with the Court providing no comment or explanation.
• [https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/USCOURTS-txsd-4_11-cv-02467/pdf/USCOURTS-txsd-4_11-cv-02467-0.pdf Whitaker vs. Stephens]{{when| date = January 2022}}{{full citation needed| date = January 2022}}{{clarify| date = January 2022}}
• [http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/16/16-70013-CV0.pdf Thomas Bartlett Whitaker vs. Lorie Davis]{{when| date = January 2022}}{{full citation needed| date = January 2022}}{{clarify| date = January 2022}}
• Thomas Whitaker and Christopher Wilkins, et al. v. Oliver J. Bell, Members of the Tx. Brd. of Criminal Justice, John Whitmire, David J. Callender, M.D., Governor Rick Perry, et al.{{when| date = January 2022}}{{full citation needed| date = January 2022}}{{clarify| date = January 2022}}

Thomas Whitaker and other inmates initiated an unsuccessful class action against the State of Texas, addressing the conditions on its death row,{{cite court |litigants= Thomas Whitaker and Christopher Wilkins, et al v. Oliver J. Bell, Members of the Tx. Brd. of Criminal Justice, John Whitmire, David J. Callender, M.D., Governor Rick Perry, et al. |vol= |reporter= |opinion= |pinpoint= |court= E.D. Tex. |url= |access-date= |quote= }} — Class Action Complaint, Jury Trial Demanded {{full citation needed|date = January 2022}}{{primary source inline|date = January 2022}} where inmates are kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.{{cite AV media |people= Sasser, Brian [video post by]; Whitaker, Thomas Bartlett |date= 2013 |title= KPRC-TV death row interview with Thomas Bart Whitaker |lang = en | url= https://vimeo.com/54158470 |access-date= January 5, 2022 | publisher = pirated | medium = video |time=}}{{full citation needed|date=January 2022}} Note, the time-stamp of the point in this 4:02 video that is being referenced has not been provided. Note also, this video could not be tied to the apparent producer, Click2Houston.com, and so must be considered suspect.{{verification needed|date=January 2022}}{{better source needed|date=January 2022}}

Kent Whitaker and his father, the only surviving victim of the crime, wrote the book, Murder by Family: The incredible true story of a son's treachery and a father's forgiveness, which — as described by Barry Leibowitz for CBS News — is about his "heart-wrenching journey ... to forgive the nameless stranger" responsible for his wounding, and the "brutal murder of his wife and son," a journey that included his realizing that the murder "had been orchestrated by [his] oldest son Bart."{{cite news | author = Leibowitz, Barry | date = August 24, 2009 | title = Book 'Em: Murder by family | website = CBS News | url = https://www.cbsnews.com/news/book-em-murder-by-family/ | access-date = January 6, 2022}}{{efn|

Murder by Family ... is the story of Kent Whitaker's heart-wrenching journey toward forgiveness and faith after the brutal murder of his wife and son. While lying in the emergency room after being airlifted from his home, Kent soon learned of his family's fate. His emotions called for a response to either forever hate the murderer ... or forgive him. At that moment, Kent made the decision to forgive the nameless stranger who had taken so much. 'I have had a hundred people tell me that they think I'm nuts — that I should hate the shooter and cry out for vengeance,' writes Kent. 'Perhaps I am crazy, but I believe that in those early moments God worked supernaturally, allowing me to forgive completely and immediately ... Little did I realize just how important my decision to forgive would be in the coming months.' An investigation uncovered that a murder plot had been orchestrated by Kent's oldest son Bart — whom Kent had unknowingly forgiven. Kent Whitaker gives readers a behind-the-scenes account from the day of the murders up to Bart's sentencing, and includes excerpts of letters from Bart as he tries to explain why he did it.

:

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Whitaker provides an account from his perspective as father "behind-the-scenes," focusing on the time frame from the crime through his son's sentencing, addressing motive, and including portions of his correspondence with his son.

Whitaker earned an undergraduate degree from Adams State University,{{cite web | author = Whitaker, Thomas Bartlett |display-authors=etal | date = January 6, 2022 | title = Thomas Bartlett Whitaker |type=contributor autobiography | website = PEN.org | publisher = PEN America | url = https://pen.org/user/thomas-bartlett-whitaker/ | access-date = January 6, 2022}}{{third party inline|date=January 2022}}, and a Master's degree in Humanities from California State University, Dominguez Hills. These are reported to have been earned while he was on death row.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} For the latter, he appears to have presented a thesis in partial fulfillment of the degree, entitled "Who Fears Hell Runs Toward It," in summer 2018.{{cite thesis | author = Whitaker, Thomas Bartlett | date = 2018 | title = Who Fears Hell Runs Toward It: On the Christian metaphysical foundations of the American penitentiary and the missing image of resistance in Foucault's Discipline and Punish | publisher = California State University, Dominguez Hills |degree=Master of Arts | via = Scholarworks.CalState.edu | url = https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/dz010q88z | access-date = January 4, 2022 }}{{primary source inline | date = January 2022}} The master's thesis has been subject of some controversy, as someone appears to have offered it as a book for sale (see also below).{{cite news | author = Beausoleil, Sophia | date=August 14, 2019 |title=Convicted killer accused of writing, selling book while in prison |website = Click2Houston.com | url=https://www.click2houston.com/news/2019/08/14/convicted-killer-accused-of-writing-selling-book-while-in-prison/ | access-date = January 4, 2022}}{{update after|2022|1|5}}

Whitaker has contributed to Solitary Watch, where he wrote about the effects of solitary confinement on himself and other death row inmates.{{cite web |author1 = Whitaker, Thomas Bartlett |author2 = Hettiger, Julia | date = July 27, 2016 | title=Voices from Solitary: The war of all against all | website = SolitaryWatch.com | url = https://solitarywatch.org/2016/07/27/voices-from-solitary-the-war-of-all-against-all/ | access-date=January 4, 2022}} He also contributed{{clarify|date=January 2022}} to Hell Is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}{{cite book |editor-first1=Jean |editor-last1=Casella |editor-first2=James |editor-last2=Ridgeway |editor-first3=Sarah |editor-last3=Shourd |year = 2016 |title= Hell Is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement |publisher=The New Press |isbn = 9781620971376}}

Whitaker won prizes in PEN America's Prison Writing Program for his essay "Hell's Kitchen,"{{cite journal | author = Wells, Ira | date = January 1, 2014 | title = "No Hostages through these doors": Thomas Bartlett Whitaker's "Hell's Kitchen" and the politics of PEN | journal = Canadian Review of American Studies | volume = 44 | issue = 3 [Winter] | pages = 471–499 | url = https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/full/10.3138/cras.2014.001 | access-date = January 4, 2022 | url-access = subscription | doi = 10.3138/cras.2014.001 | s2cid = 144743297}}{{efn|

The PEN Prison Writing Program ... has a slightly different agenda ... to help convicted criminals become writers '[believing] in the restorative and rehabilitative power of writing' ... [and] 'use of the written word as a legitimate form of power.” But what is the nature of the “power” of the written word? And what, moreover, will this power restore and rehabilitate? [Is PEN] honoring an important strand of America’s liberal intellectual heritage? ...pledging allegiance to a romantic coupling of art and freedom? ... inadvertently helping to bind prisoners ever more insidiously to the carceral regime? Or ... claiming something that is actually true? This article addresses these questions through a reading of Thomas Bartlett Whitaker’s prize-winning essay “Hell’s Kitchen” and finds that the power of Whitaker’s prison writing resides in its capacity to shock readers into a sensory appreciation of the radical strangeness of life lived in a state of civil death.

:

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"Manufacturing Anomie"{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} and the essay "A Nothing Would Do as Well."{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} He was named a 2018-2019 PEN America Writing for Justice Fellow,{{cite press release | publisher = PEN America | date = 2018 | title = Writing for Justice Fellowship 2018-2019 | website = PEN.org | url=https://pen.org/writing-justice-2018-2019/ |access-date=January 4, 2022}} a program that aims to support creation of "written works of lasting merit that illuminate critical issues related to mass incarceration and catalyze public debate."{{cite press release | publisher = PEN America | date = 2022 | title = Writing for Justice Fellowship | website = PEN.org | url=https://pen.org/writing-justice/ |access-date=January 4, 2022}} Scholarly attention has been directed toward this PEN program, noting that while PEN was an esteemed human rights organization known for the defense of free speech rights, in particular of persecuted writers, the Prison Writing Program presented a distinct agenda, namely in a "[belief] in the restorative and rehabilitative power of writing" to "help convicted criminals become writers," an aim which raises questions about the nature and residence of the power inmates are given and about its impact on prisoners and on society. Ira Wells, in particular, points to Whitaker's participation in the program to exemplify the questions, declaring Whitaker's prison writing powerful in its ability to "shock readers into a sensory appreciation of the radical strangeness of [his] life lived."

In 2007, Whitaker founded an inmate blog, originally created with the assistance of his father and now maintained by volunteers, entitled Minutes Before Six; it has published his work and trial records, and articles, poetry, and art from inmates held in prisons in the United States.{{cite news | author = Hopper, Jessica | date = September 8, 2011 | title=Death row bloggers get help from victims | website = ABCNews.go.com | publisher = ABC News | url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/blogging-death-row-inmates-victims/story?id=14473507 | access-date=January 5, 2022}}{{cite web | editor1 = Milito, Dina [Executive Director] | editor2 = O’Neill, Teri [Director] | others = Whitaker, Thomas Bartlett [Founder and Creative Advisor] | display-authors = etal | date = January 4, 2022 | title = The Minutes Before Six Team | website = MinutesBeforeSix.blogspot.com | url = https://minutesbeforesix.com/wp/the-mb6-team/ | access-date=January 4, 2022}} The name of the blog references "the hour at which executions take place in Texas."{{cite web | author = Andress, Justin | date = September 23, 2021 | title = "Far worse than any death sentence": Horrific realities of solitary confinement | website = Ranker.com | url = https://www.ranker.com/list/solitary-confinement-facts/justin-andress | access-date=January 6, 2022}}{{better source needed|date=January 2022}}{{better source needed|date=January 2022}}

As of 2019, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was investigating a report that Whitaker's master's thesis was being offered for sale online.{{update after|2022|1|5}}

{{expand section | with = a relatively complete list, in chronological order, of all important works by the title subject, especially those referenced herein, for each giving their complete publication details, including date and publisher of its first appearance | small = no | date = January 2022}}

Examples of the prison writing of the title subject, with dates of their first publication, include:

• {{cite book | author = Whitaker, Thomas Bartlett | date = 2016 | chapter = A Nothing Would Do As Well | pages = 101–113 | title= Hell Is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement | editor-first1=Jean |editor-last1=Casella |editor-first2=James |editor-last2=Ridgeway |editor-first3=Sarah|editor-last3=Shourd |publisher=The New Press | isbn = 9781620971376}}
• {{cite web | author = Whitaker, Thomas Bartlett |title=Hell's Kitchen |website=PEN.org |date= May 5, 2011 | publisher = PEN America |url=https://pen.org/hells-kitchen |access-date=2017-04-25}}{{full citation needed|date=January 2022}}
• {{cite web | author = Whitaker, Thomas Bartlett |title=Manufacturing Anomie |website=PEN.org | publisher = PEN America |date= July 7, 2014 |url=https://pen.org/manufacturing-anomie |access-date=2017-04-25}}{{full citation needed|date=January 2022}}
• {{cite web | author = Whitaker, Thomas Bartlett |title=A Nothing Would Do As Well |website=PEN.org | publisher = PEN America |date= July 7, 2014 |url=https://pen.org/a-nothing-would-do-as-well/ |access-date=2017-04-25}}{{full citation needed|date=January 2022}}

• Dana Ewell – a California man who arranged the execution of his family after lying about business success while at college

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite magazine | author1 = Ridgeway, James | author2 = Casella, Jean | date=May 2, 2013 | title = Polunsky | series = America's 10 worst prisons | magazine = Mother Jones | url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/10-worst-prisons-america-allan-polunsky-unit-texas-death-row | access-date = January 4, 2022}} — A piece about the conditions in the prison where Whitaker was once held.
• {{cite web | author = Jones, Andrea | date = September 2, 2013 | title = Prison writing and political will | website = TheAmericanReader.com | url = https://theamericanreader.com/prison-writing-and-political-will/ | access-date = January 9, 2022}} — A prisoner-centric piece, with essentially no mention of crimes committed or of victims, focusing on the difficulties faced by prisoners who wish to write for an outside readership. For a citation presenting the appearing date of publication of this work, see this source: {{cite web |title=Prison writing political will |date=2013 |website=prisonerresource.com |url=https://prisonerresource.com/201392prison-writing-political-will/}}
• {{cite magazine | author = Hannaford, Alex | date = June 12, 2015 | title = Letters from death row: Faith behind bars | magazine = The Texas Observer (TexasObserver.org) | url = https://www.texasobserver.org/death-row-inmates-religion/ | access-date = January 9, 2022}} — A small set of interviews sampling perspectives on faith from those on Texas' death row, featuring an old one from Whitaker.
• {{cite news |author = McCullough, Jolie |date=February 20, 2018 |title=In rare move, Texas Parole Board recommends clemency for death row inmate Thomas Whitaker |newspaper = Texas Tribune |url=https://www.texastribune.org/2018/02/20/rare-move-texas-parole-board-recommends-clemency-death-row-inmate-thom/ |access-date = January 4, 2022}} — An extensive piece of Texas-based reporting on the clemency outcome.
• {{cite web | author1 = Meissner, Caits | author2 = Whitaker, Thomas Bartlett | date = April 19, 2019 | title = Works of justice: An interview with Writing for Justice fellow Thomas Bartlett Whitaker | website = PEN.org | publisher = PEN America | url=https://pen.org/works-of-justice-thomas-bartlett-whitaker-interview |access-date=2019-05-16}} — An interview of Whitaker by Meissner of PEN, after his receipt of their fellowship.
• {{cite web | author = Beausoleil, Sophia | date=August 14, 2019 |title=Convicted killer accused of writing, selling book while in prison | website = Click2Houston.com | url=https://www.click2houston.com/news/2019/08/14/convicted-killer-accused-of-writing-selling-book-while-in-prison/ | access-date = January 4, 2022}} — A report on a Texas investigation into the sale of Whitaker's MS thesis online.

• {{cite web |title=Images of the "Faces of death row" |date=August 30, 2016 |publisher=Texas Tribune |url=https://apps.texastribune.org/death-row/}} — an updated presentation of all Inmates on death row in Texas.
• {{cite web |title=Criminal Case Record links |website=tylerpaw.co.fort-bend.tx.us |url=http://tylerpaw.co.fort-bend.tx.us/PublicAccess/Search.aspx?ID=100}} — for the two Fort Bend County cases for Whitaker.

• {{cite web |publisher=Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) |title=Whitaker, Thomas |series=Death Row Information |url=https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/dr_info/whitakerthomas.html }} — record regarding Whitaker's earlier stay on death row

• {{cite magazine |author=Penn, Nathaniel |others=Winters, Dan (photographer) |date=2 March 2017 |title=Buried alive: Stories from inside solitary confinement |magazine=GQ magazine (gq.com) |url=https://www.gq.com/story/buried-alive-solitary-confinement}} — magazine article featuring a 600 word statement from Whitaker claiming TDCJ retaliation for a Section 1983 assertion his constitutional rights had been violated.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitaker, Thomas Bartlett}}

Category:1979 births

Category:2003 murders in the United States

Category:Living people

Category:American people convicted of murder

Category:American prisoners sentenced to death

Category:Familicides in the United States

Category:Prisoners sentenced to death by Texas

Category:People convicted of murder by Texas

Category:People convicted of soliciting murder

Category:Recipients of American gubernatorial clemency

Category:21st-century American criminals

Category:American male criminals

Category:Criminals from Texas

Category:Adams State University alumni

Category:California State University, Dominguez Hills alumni