The Whitaker Family Murders of Sugar Land, Texas

 

Kevin, Patricia, Bart and Kent Whitaker (photo source: malkecrimenotes)

December 10, 2003 was to be a day of joy and celebration for the Whitaker family of Sugar Land, Texas.   Kent, 54 years old, the comptroller of a family-owned construction business, and his wife Patricia, 51 years old, a former elementary school teacher, were thrilled to hear that their oldest son, 23-year-old Bart, was graduating from Sam Houston State University with honors.  The trio, along with 19-year-old Kevin, drove 10 minutes or so from their home in the Sugar Lake subdivision to nearby Stafford to dine at the popular Pappadeaux seafood restaurant.  During the festivities, Kent and Patricia gifted Bart with a $4,000 Rolex watch.  

The young Whitaker family (source: Forensic Files)

Upon returning back to the family home, Bart went to his Yukon to collect his cell phone and check his messages.  Kevin, who had driven, was the first to enter the home after unlocking the front door and as he entered the dining room was shot once through the chest, falling to the floor, the car keys in his hand landing beside him.   The bullet penetrated his heart.  Patricia, behind Kevin, was shot in the chest as she entered the home.   Kent heard the shots that struck his wife and his son as he himself was struck.  As he was on the front porch and at an angle from the shooter, the bullet passed through his chest and into his shoulder, shattering his humerus.  Its pathway had been less than six inches from his heart.  Bart rushed in behind his father and, in a struggle with the masked gunman, was shot in his upper left arm.  He then chased the gunman out the back door. 

The Whitfields' neighbor, Cliff Stanley, rushed to the scene and used his own shirt to staunch Kent's wound.   Stanley also called 911 and was on the phone with the operator while Bart called 911 from his own phone, explaining that he had been shot in the arm and had chased the shooter out the back door.  When asked to describe the assailant, he said he didn't know but possibly black.  Interestingly, his father would tell authorities that he was white skin around the eyeholes of the mask.  

Patricia, Kevin and Kent 
(photo source:  CBS News)

Kevin died within minutes of being shot, before help could arrive.  Patricia was airlifted by a Life Flight service but died en route to Memorial Hermann Hospital.  Kent and Bart would survive.

One of the first detectives on the scene, Marshall Slot, thought the operator was joking when he heard the shooting of four people had taken place in Sugar Land, a community known for a nearly nonexistent homicide rate.  Kent Whitaker said that given the low crime rate, when he saw the masked gunman his first thought was it was a prank by one of his sons' friends.  It was Slot that found the murder weapon at the scene, a 9mm Glock handgun that was registered to Kevin Whitaker.   

Slot also found a black leather men's glove lying on the curb next to Bart's Chevrolet Yukon.  

Although all the dresser drawers in the first floor master bedroom had been left open about two inches, none of the contents had been disturbed.  Jewelry and expensive audio and video equipment was left out in plain sight and the only fingerprints found in the home belonged to the Whitaker family.  The killer apparently entered the home through a built-out crawlspace in Kevin's room on the second floor and then pried his gun safe open to take the Glock, which had been a gift from Bart.

The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Department arrived with three bloodhounds, who tracked from the back door to Bart's Yukon.  Scent swabs were obtained from the black glove Slot found, the dresser drawers in the master bedroom, Kevin's gun safe and the murder weapon. 

Investigators began probing into the Whitakers' backgrounds, to see who would want to execute them.  An armed robbery at a house not far from the Whitakers' gated community and soon after the murders led nowhere, as bloodhounds did not pick up his scent at the Whitaker home.   

Investigators found that Bart had left Clements High School after being busted for a string of robberies he committed with other students and sent to a Christian academy.  He was evaluated by a psychologist, who diagnosed him with delusional paranoid disorder.  Despite this, his parents bought him several luxury vehicles, a lakeside townhouse in Willis, about 70 miles north of Sugar Land and the Houston metro area, and paid his tuition at first, Baylor University and then Sam Houston State.   

On December 12, 2003, the Sugar Land Police Department received a tip from a newspaper reporter that Bart was not enrolled in Sam Houston University and had not been for some time.  With the help of grand jury subpoenas, police obtained Bart's school transcripts.  Confronted with the information, Bart told the detectives and his father that he had informed his mother he was not graduating.  Whatever Bart had used the tuition money on that his parents provided him with was unknown. 

Kevin, Patricia and Bart, December 10, 2003
(photo source: ABC News)

Three days later, on December 15, a Dallas bank teller by the name of Adam Hipp entered the Sugar Land Police Department wanting to speak to Detective Slot.  A former classmate of Bart's at Clements High School, Hipp told Slot that two years earlier, in 2001, Bart had recruited him to kill his parents in order to inherit his parents' share of the construction business.  Hipp provided a diagram of the Whitaker house and indicated where Bart had instructed him, as the gunman, to lie in wait while Bart took his family to dinner.  The murder weapon was to have been provided by Bart's Baylor roommate, who would drive the pistol down from Waco to provide to Hipp.  Hipp was to have shot Kent, Patricia, and Kevin Whitaker in the front entry of the home and then shoot Bart in the arm so as to deflect suspicion from him.  Astonishingly, Kent and Patricia got wind of the murder plot after an acquaintance of Bart's called the police but they didn't take it seriously, thinking it was "too far out."  Bart told his parents it was all a misunderstanding and they trusted him.

The diagram Hipp drew for police
(photo source: CBS News)

Hipp was checked out, as the police thought he might be a suspect, but he had a solid alibi for the night of the murders as he was working late into the evening of December 10. 

Investigators located Bart's former Baylor roommate, Justin Peters in San Antonio.  Peters admitted his participation in the plot Hipp described and said it had been planned for April of 2001.  He also said that Bart had recruited another student, Will Anthony, to kill his family back in December of 2000 but that plan fell through.  He verified that Bart Whitaker's motive for murder was financial gain.

In investigating Bart, Detective Slot looked into Bart's Willis roommate, 21-year-old Chris Brashear, who had worked with Bart at the Bentwater Yacht & Country Club in Lake Conroe, less than 10 miles from the Whitaker townhome in Willis.  A few doors down from Bart and Brashear lived Steven Champagne, whom Bart had gotten a bartending job at Bentwater.  Both men denied involvement in the Whitaker murders but agreed to be interviewed, provide DNA samples and submit scent specimens for the bloodhounds.  The dogs got a hit on Chris Brashear's scent on the glove, drawers in the master bedroom, Kevin's gun safe and the murder weapon.

Adam Hipp, meanwhile, got himself an attorney and negotiated an agreement in which he would not be prosecuted for his part in the April 2001 murder plot provided he assist the authorities with their continued investigation into Bart Whitaker.  He contacted Bart and recorded the conversations.  In one of the conversations, Bart agreed to pay Hipp $20,000 to lie to the police about his (Bart's) involvement in the April 2001 conspiracy and in April of 2004 went so far as to mail $240 to a Dallas post office box set up specifically to receive the payment.  Bart's fingerprints were found all over the mailer.

Two months later, on June 28, 2004, Bart's Chevy Yukon was found abandoned at a Southwest Houston apartment complex, the engine still running.  He appeared to have disappeared.  

The case appeared to stall until August of 2005.  Detectives had wiretapped Chris Brashear and Steven Champagne's phones, hoping to get a lead on Bart.  Although Brashear and Champagne never spoke to each other, or to Bart, grand jury subpoenas were served on friends and family members.  On August 28, Steven Champagne decided he had had enough; het met Detective Slot at a coffee shop in Conroe to confess his part in the Whitaker murders.  He said he had not known about the murders in advance but had driven Chris Brashear away from the Whitaker home on December 10, 2003 and helped to dispose of evidence after the murders in Lake Conroe.  Champagne took a polygraph which he failed, pulling his desired immunity off the table.  The following day Champagne gave a videotaped confession, implicating himself, Chris Brashear and Bart Whitaker in the murders of Patricia and Kevin Whitaker and the attempted murder of Kent Whitaker.  After showing detectives where he and Brashear discarded a bag of evidence off a bridge in Lake Conroe, he was arrested, to be followed by the arrest of Chris Brashear.   Divers located the bag, which contained a glove that matched the one found at the crime scene, a water bottle with Brashear's DNA sealed on the inside of the cap, and a chisel with paint matching that on Kevin Whitaker's gun safe.

Bart, at his celebratory dinner on December 10, 2003
(photo source: ABC News)

On September 14, 2005 Detective Slot got a tip from a man later identified as a former coworker of Bart's who said that Bart Whitaker was in Mexico, using his name -- Rudy Rios.  Rios had sold Bart his identification and driven him to Mexico for $3,000.   Bart, as Rudy Rios, had settled in the town of Cerralvo, gotten a job at a furniture store and gotten a girlfriend (her family owned the furniture store.)  He told his new friends that he received the gunshot to his arm while fighting in Afghanistan, that he was an orphan and his mother was a prostitute.  The real Rudy Rios picked up a $10,000 reward for his tip. 

Photo source: Facebook

On September 22, 2005, Bart Whitaker was taken into custody when he showed up for what he thought was a job interview in Monterey, Mexico and returned to Texas.

In December, the District Attorney announced that the state would be seeking the death penalty against Bart but not against the alleged triggerman, Chris Brashear, or Steven Champagne as the DA believed neither of them would have committed a violent crime were it not for Bart Whitaker.   Bart was offered a  plea bargain from the DA in exchange for an admission of guilt, which he rejected.  

A year later, the Assistant District Attorney received a Christmas card from Bart Whitaker.  Bart wrote that the ADA should keep his family in mind during the holiday season, making the ADA worry that Bart was thinly threatening his family. 

The trial began in March of 2007.  Bart refused to enter a plea, forcing Judge Clifford Vacek to enter a plea of not guilty on his behalf.  The first witness was Kent Whitaker, who recounted the night his wife and youngest son were shot to death.  A recording of a phone conversation was played while Kent was on the stand; the call took place between Kent and Bart.  Bart complained that his attorney had the nerve to send an associate to speak to him and that he wanted the best attorney money could buy. 

Steven Champagne took the stand on the third day of trial, recounting for the jury how he had met Bart in the spring of 2003.  According to Champagne, Bart frequently told him he was an orphan and that Champagne was the brother he never had.  By late summer, Bart was joking with Champagne and Chris Brashear about killing his family, to gauge their reactions.  In September, Bart asked Champagne if he would be willing to kill his family, if Bart got them out of the house on a pretext.  Shortly after this, Bart invited Chris Brashear to move into his townhome. 

After being told by Bart that he was already guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, Champagne agreed to be the getaway driver.  Bart informed his parents that he would be graduating from Sam Houston State in December and arranged for a celebratory dinner.  Per Champagne, the day before the murders, Bart and Kent got into a disagreement when Kent informed Bart he could not make it to the celebration dinner, which would foil the murder plans.

On the day of the murders, Bart and Brashear left Willis in Bart's Yukon, with Champagne following.  Told that the Whitakers would be dining at the Pappadeaux restaurant in Stafford, Champagne parked in the back, where he could watch the family arrive and depart.  Shortly after Bart enjoyed a bread pudding with "Congratulations" spelled out in chocolate sauce, he called Chris Brashear to inform him they would be leaving shortly.  Champagne followed their vehicle back to their home and parked in front of the house behind the Whitakers', as Bart had instructed him. 

Not long after parking, Champagne was joined by Brashear, who jumped in the backseat.  Brashear told Champagne that when Kevin Whitaker saw him, he smiled -- before Brashear pointed the Glock at his chest and pulled the trigger.  Brashear had mistakenly taken Bart's cell phone from the Yukon, had left the murder weapon behind on the kitchen floor, and had a roll of bills he had taken from Kent's closet.   Champagne and Brashear changed clothes and dumped the evidence in Lake Conroe before heading to a bar, using Kent's money to pay their tab.

Before leaving the stand, Champagne recalled a February 2004 conversation he had with Bart as the two were in a restaurant.  Bart was curious to know what Champagne had told the police and stated that "the job wasn't finished" and began to detail a plot to kill his father, Kent.  

Following Steven Champagne were Will Anthony, Justin Peters, and Adam Hipp who each detailed their participation in the earlier, discarded plots to kill Kent, Patricia, and Kevin Whitaker.  All of them recounted that they were going through personal crises and tragedies when Bart Whitaker approached them about a murder for hire plot; Hipp and Anthony were struggling with their grades and would eventually both be expelled and Peters's girlfriend had been killed in a car accident.

The jury took only an hour and a half to find Bart guilty of capital murder on March 8, 2007.

Both Kent Whitaker and Bo Bartlett, Patricia Whitaker's brother, pleaded for Bart's life to be spared.  They each believed that family expectations had placed too much pressure on him and he cracked.  They also believed that he had been given too much too soon.  Neither explanation sat well with the mostly working class jury.

Bart on trial
(photo source:  CBS News)

Bart, who had not taken the stand during his trial, took the stand during the penalty phase in a last ditch effort to save his skin.  Rather than the murders being financially motivated, as the prosecution contended, he claimed the murders had been borne from his irrational hatred of his family because he could never fulfill their high expectations of him.  Bart also claimed to have found God while he was hiding out in Mexico and was actively participating in the jail's Bible study.

When confronted with his own behavior during the investigation and in police interviews, Bart blamed his attorneys and his co-conspirators and reiterated that he had found God and was now a different person.  He did admit to the ADA, however, that he had no reason to hate his family but arranged to have them killed anyway.

The jury took 10 hours and with many of them in tears, sentenced Bart to death for the murders of Kevin and Patricia Whitaker.  Kent Whitaker flinched when hearing the verdict but told the press that while the verdict was not what he wished, it was God's will.  His son was emotionless.   

Steven Champagne (left) and Chris Brashear
(photo source: CBS News)

Chris Brashear took a plea bargain and received life with the possibility of parole after 30 years.  He is incarcerated at the Eastham Unit in Lovelady, Texas.  He will be eligible for parole in 2035, when he's 53 years old.

Steve Champagne got 15 years in exchange for testifying against Bart and Brashear and is currently out of prison.  

Bart appealed his death sentence, citing ineffectiveness of trial counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, and the cruelty of the death penalty.  

Patricia and Kevin 
(photo source: cncpunishment.com)

In 2008, Kent Whitaker published a book called "Murder by Family," in which he detailed the murders as well as his choice to forgive not only his son but Chris Brashear.   He was introduced to a woman by the name of Tanya by friends and the two married.  They spend their life together traveling the country and speaking on the power of forgiveness.  

Kent and Tanya Whitaker (photo source: outreach.com)

Bart Whitaker's appeal on prosecutorial misconduct was dismissed by the Court of Appeals in April of 2017.  Six months later, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal on the insufficiency of counsel.  On November 1, 2017, a warrant was signed for his execution, setting the date for February 22, 2018 at 6 p.m.

On February 20, 2018, after impassioned pleas by Kent Whitaker, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended clemency.   

On February 22, 2018 at 5:15 p.m., after Bart Whitaker ate his final meal and was preparing to be strapped to the gurney, and just 45 minutes before his scheduled execution, Bart's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Governor Greg Abbott.  It was the first time Abbott had ever done so.  In exchange for his sentence being commuted, Bart agreed to forfeit any right to parole.   He released a statement saying that he was grateful not for himself but for his father.

Bart remains incarcerated at the William G. McConnell Unit in Beeville, Texas in solitary confinement.

 

Kent during a visit with Bart, 2016
(photo source: ABC News)