GARY WAYNE ETHERIDGE -
Innocent man on Texas death row

This is a call for help from Gary Etheridge and his wife Claudia Schweiger-Etheridge for help in the organization and development of a defense fund for Gary.

Gary has been on Texas death row for 12 years now for a crime he was a part of, but Gary was not the actual killer and refused to name the actual killer. So the state of Texas and the judge accused Gary and manipulated the evidence to seem like Gary did the crime alone. There are several items of proof that Gary did not kill the victim, but lawyers and the judge and prosecution hid these from the jury and kept Gary from telling his factual story of the events of the crime. Gary was not alone as the state said.

Statement of Crime

On February 2nd, 1990 Christie Chauviere and Gail Chauviere were robbed and stabbed at their home in Richwood, Texas. Gary Etheridge worked at the condominiums that Gail managed. Gary was the maintenance worker.

Gary refused to name who was with him at the crime because under Texas law all parties at the crime can get a death sentence. For this reason Gary gave the police several versions of the events of the crime and demanded that the police releases Gary's former wife Teresa from jail as she had also been charged with the crime. And the police had taken Gary's infant daughter (9 months) and hid her away from everyone. Gary signed a statement about the crime that the police wrote to fit what they needed Gary to admit to. This was done in a deal to release Teresa and give Brittany, the daughter, back to Teresa. Gary refused to name the other party of the crime. The written statement did not include that Gary killed a girl. Gary did not confess at any time that he killed Christie Chauviere. He confessed and always refered to the robbing and stabbing of Gail Chauviere but he never at any time touched Christie, Gail's daughter.

A few days after the crime Gary had heard that the police wanted him for murder charges, so Gary was on the way back to turn himself in to the police and explain that he did not kill Christie, but that he did stab and rob Gail. The Houston SWAT police caught Gary walking down the highway and picked him up. The police demanded his name and were very aggressive. This frightened Gary and as a consequence he lied and said his name was other than Gary.

The SWAT police put handcuffs on Gary and began demanding answers to their questions. Gary told them he did not ever touch the girl Christie but that he stabbed Gail and was on his way to report to the police office for this. The police were not satisfied with Gary's answers, so they took him to the woods and began slapping and beating him until he agreed to answer in a satisfactory manner. Gary after several minutes of being beaten and hit agreed to answer in what ever way they wanted, but continued to ask for a lawyer. The police did not respond to this.

There were police married into the Chauviere family, Gail's two older daughters are / were married to police officers who work for the sheriff's office which the SWAT police delivered Gary to. The police family members of the victim were there and being physically restrained and were cussing and threatening to get a hold of Gary. The police used this threatening situation to force Gary to endure another four hours of police harrassment and threats and forcing him to answer questions. In these questions Gary again and again tried to explain that he did not stab Christie and that he was not alone at the robbery at the Chauviere home. The police investigated and sought the other criminal - but Gary refused to say the name and the police put all blame on Gary alone.

This was when Gary signed the statement that the police wrote to get Teresa out of jail and get Brittany handed back to Teresa. Teresa was also pregnant with Gary's second daughter.

The reason that the police suspected Gary in this crime was because they found the car in the driveway of the Chauviere home which Gary had been driving. The car was owned by Teresa's brother and when the police went to arrest him to question him on the crime (they thought he had done it), he told them that he knows Christie and goes to school with her but that he did not do the crime and that Gary Etheridge and Teresa Etheridge had bought the car , which was found in the Chauviere driveway, from him.

Gary has always taken responsibility for his part of the crime in which he robbed and stabbed Gail Chauviere. Gail is Christie's mom. Gail testified at the trial that Gary stabbed and robbed her but that she never saw Gary stab Christie. Gail also testified that, when she came home after a few minutes after Gary's arrival at her home, that she saw his car in the driveway and that both doors were open. This is also a clue that a second man was at the crime scene.

Gail was stabbed with Gary's small folding pocket knife in a rear room in the house. Christie was stabbed to death with a very large knife in the front room of the house.

Gary passed a lie detector test saying that he did not stab or kill Christie Chauviere; that he only stabbed and robbed Gail Chauviere.

Because there was no evidence at all to convict Gary, the police created a drop of Gary's blood that they claim was found on Christie's shirt and used this to support their accusation that Gary stabbed Christie and Gail at the same time in the same room with the same knife. The drop of blood was found on Christie's shirt which was soaked with her blood to a point that to single out one small drop of blood is impossible. Strangely this one small drop of blood was the only drop of Gary's blood found near Christie and no other blood drops were tested!

A proper DNA test will prove that Gary did not leave his blood on Christie and was not bleeding until he went outside and the car would not start. So while one tried starting the car Gary went into the garage and got jumper cables and cut his finger cutting the strap off the cable binders. Gary's blood is in the garage and on the cables.

Because there is no evidence at all to blame Gary for the murder of Christie, the police developed a theory and claimed that everything happened in the front room but the crime fotos and blood splatters and Gail herself prove that Gail was in the back of the house and Christie in the front and it is not possible to stab two women at the same time with two different knives in two separate rooms by one and the same person.

The judge in this trial is a judge that has always hated Gary from childhood on and called Gary all sorts of names when he passed the death sentence on Gary. The judge even stood up and incited the jury and spectators to clap and cheer upon his words that Gary is going to die because he is nothing but a trash.

That judge put lawyers on Gary's case to cheat Gary out of an effective defense and to rush the case through very fast and keep Gary from telling his part of the actual events. Gary cussed and made a scene when the lawyers refused to allow Gary to take the witness stand and tell what really happened. Gary wanted to tell the jury what happened, that the blood drop is not his and that the police beat him and forced him to sign a statement that they had written