Michael Eugene Sharp was an oilfield worker in West Texas who was convicted of two killings that arose from a single event in June 1982: the capital murder of Brenda Kay Broadway, 31, and the killing of her 8-year-old daughter, Christy Michelle Elms. Broadway's older daughter, then 14, survived. Sharp was tried twice, in two different places, and received a death sentence in one trial and life imprisonment in the other. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the death sentence in 1986, and Texas executed him on November 19, 1997.
A third death was raised at his trial. At the punishment stage of the Broadway trial, a detective told the jury that Sharp had discussed with him, while in custody, the death of Blanca Arreola, an 18-year-old woman from Odessa. Sharp was never charged in that death, and no court has made a finding on it. The Texas Attorney General's office described him in 1997 as a suspect in several other West Texas murders; none of those was charged either.
The crimes took place in the Kermit area of Winkler County, in the oil country of West Texas, in June 1982. Brenda Kay Broadway and her younger daughter, Christy, died. Her older daughter, 14, survived. Broadway's death was tried as capital murder, on a change of venue from Winkler County, and ended in a death sentence; the death of Christy Michelle Elms was tried separately and ended in a sentence of life imprisonment.
On Monday, June 14, 1982, an arrest warrant was obtained for Sharp. He was arrested in Sweetwater, Texas, on June 16, 1982. A Winkler County grand jury returned an indictment against him on June 21, 1982, and the State announced itself ready for trial on August 31, 1982.
The Elms case was transferred to Lubbock County and tried there. That trial concluded on November 17, 1982, with a conviction for the killing of Christy Michelle Elms and a sentence of life imprisonment. Whether the conviction was for capital murder or for murder is not on record.
One week after the Lubbock trial ended, on November 24, 1982, a Winkler County grand jury indicted Sharp again for the capital murder of Brenda Kay Broadway. The State announced ready on the new indictment on December 6, 1982. On March 7, 1983, the case was transferred to Crockett County on a change of venue.
The date of the Crockett County trial and of the verdict is not on record. Sharp was found guilty of the capital murder of Brenda Kay Broadway in a trial held in Crockett County and was sentenced to death.
At the punishment stage, the State put on a detective, Jerry Smith, who testified over defense objection that Sharp had talked with him in custody about the death of Blanca Arreola. The detective did not know how she died. He said Sharp had not been indicted for her death and that he did not expect him to be. The prosecutor referred to her death repeatedly in closing argument as evidence that Sharp would remain dangerous.
Sharp appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which decided Sharp v. State on April 9, 1986, sitting en banc, with Judge White writing for the court. The court affirmed the conviction and the death sentence. Judges Teague and Clinton dissented.
Sharp raised nineteen grounds. The court rejected them all. They included a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, in which the court noted that a jury may believe or disbelieve any part of a witness's testimony; complaints about delay and the second indictment, which the court rejected on the ground that the State's earlier announcement of readiness carried over to the new indictment for the same offense; objections to the way jurors were excused and challenged; and a complaint that the indictment left out the special punishment issues, which the court held are not elements of the offense.
Several grounds concerned the Arreola testimony. The court held that notice was not required for evidence of other offenses and that the objections made at trial did not preserve the claims under the Texas statute on the admissibility of statements made in custody. It also held that evidence of unadjudicated offenses is admissible at the punishment stage of a capital trial. In his dissent, Judge Teague would have found the Arreola statements inadmissible and would have remanded for a hearing on whether Sharp's lawyer had given ineffective assistance, because the prosecutor had said before trial that no such statements would be used.
Sharp asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. On October 3, 1988, in Sharp v. Texas, the Court denied certiorari. Justice Marshall dissented. He repeated his view that the death penalty is always cruel and unusual punishment, and he said that he would also have taken the case to decide whether evidence of unadjudicated criminal conduct may be put before a capital jury at the punishment stage. He wrote that he was troubled that a jury again faced what he called "unproved but highly prejudicial allegations of criminal conduct."
Sharp was executed in Huntsville, Texas, on November 19, 1997. It was the 35th execution in Texas that year, a state record.
Blanca Arreola, 18, of Odessa, is the only other death named at his trial. Sharp discussed it with a detective in custody. He was never charged in it, and no court found that he caused it. In 1997 the Texas Attorney General's office described him as a suspect in several other West Texas murders. Those cases are not named, and no charge, trial or finding followed in any of them.
The Arreola death: discussed by Sharp with a detective, never charged, never tried. It is not a conviction.
The "several other West Texas murders" attributed to him in 1997 by the Texas Attorney General's office are suspicions only.
Whether the Elms conviction in Lubbock was for capital murder or for murder is not on record.
The dates of the Crockett County trial and verdict are not on record.
June 1982: the crimes in the Kermit area of Winkler County; Brenda Kay Broadway and her daughter Christy Michelle Elms die; the older daughter, 14, survives.
June 14, 1982: arrest warrant obtained.
June 16, 1982: Sharp is arrested in Sweetwater.
June 21, 1982: Winkler County grand jury indictment.
August 31, 1982: the State announces ready for trial.
November 17, 1982: the Lubbock trial for the killing of Christy Michelle Elms concludes; life imprisonment.
November 24, 1982: Winkler County grand jury re-indicts Sharp for the capital murder of Brenda Kay Broadway.
December 6, 1982: the State announces ready on the new indictment.
March 7, 1983: the Broadway case is transferred to Crockett County on a change of venue.
Crockett County trial (date not on record): guilty of capital murder; death sentence.
April 9, 1986: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirms (Sharp v. State).
October 3, 1988: U.S. Supreme Court denies certiorari (Sharp v. Texas).
November 19, 1997: Sharp is executed in Huntsville, the 35th execution in Texas that year.