Death Sentence Handed Down in Bart Whitaker Case

The penalty phase of an emotional capital murder trial ended on Thursday, March 8, 2007 when Thomas "Bart" Whitaker, who orchestrated the killing of his entire family and resulted in the deaths of his mother and brother in 2003, was sentenced to death in Fort Bend County, Texas.

The Sugar Land man hired his roommate, Chris Brashear, to execute his family in December of 2003. Bart Whitaker's father, who has supported and forgiven his son and asked that he not be given the death penalty, was also supposed to die in a murder that was conceived for the most cold-blooded of reasons: money. There was no anger, passion or revenge involved. Bart Whitaker just wanted to be the sole heir of his family's million-dollar fortune. Testimony clearly showed that Bart had a stable and well-to-do upbringing.

"Bart Whitaker thought he could get away with the perfect crime. He quite simply wanted to kill his family so he could get inherit the Whitaker family's $1.5 million estate. He wanted to kill his brother Kevin quite simply because he didn't want to split the money with Kevin. He wanted all the money for himself," prosecutor Jeff Strange said.

While the jury agonized over the death penalty issue and looked to the defendant for signs of remorse, they found nothing sufficient to spare Bart from lethal injection. The jury was split over whether he posed a future threat to society.

"We slept on it, we prayed on it and we cried on it," said presiding juror Steve Watkins.

A video was played showing a then 23-year-old Bart Whitaker lying to the police about the events that took place at the scene of the murder, where Bart himself was also shot in the shoulder to make it look like the entire family had surprised a burglar in the home. Bart's mother, 51-year-old Patricia died at the scene. Bart's 19-year-old brother Kevin also suffered fatal injuries at the scene. Both Bart and his 56 year old father, Kent Whitaker, survived although only Bart was supposed to, if things had gone in accordance with his heinous plan.

Police were told that the family had gone out to dinner to celebrate Bart's upcoming graduation from Sam Houston State University.