Brent Ray Brewer received the death penalty for the 1990 robbery and murder of Robert Doyle Laminack.
Brewer and Krystie Lynn Nystrom approached Laminack outside his Amarillo business and asked for a ride to the Salvation Army.
On the way there, Brewer pulled out a knife and stabbed Laminack to death as the 65-year-old begged for his life.
The couple took Laminack's wallet containing $140 and went to a friend’s apartment where they changed out of their blood-soaked clothing.
The two fled Amarillo and two weeks later were later arrested in Red Oak, south of Dallas.
Nystrom was sentenced to life in prison.
But Brewer was given the death penalty, and he is set for execution on November 9.
Recently in a video provided by his attorneys Brewer expressed remorse for the murder of Laminack.
Even though it's 33 years ago, I don't even know where to begin. Now, how do you fix something that can't be fixed? The 53 year old guy you're looking at now is not the 19 year old I was in April of 90. I don't even know that kid. How do you explain stabbing somebody and then running off and you don't know what happened until later on? You find out they bled out. When you're 19, 20 and you're confused, or you're on drugs, or you're drinking, or you're hanging around the wrong people, you have no real value system. I guess you'd call it a moral compass. I sobered up in the county jail and realized that I had done something I can't undo, and I had to live with that every day.
—Brent Brewer
Attorneys for Brewer continue to work prevent the execution arguing that the death sentence is the invalid product of the "junk science" testimony of Dr. Richard Coons.
The attorneys do not dispute the facts of the crime. But they say the death penalty is not justified because Brewer is not a threat to society.
Shawn Nolan is an attorney for Brent Brewer.
The main reason he was sentenced to death is because the state presented unreliable and false evidence from a guy named Dr. Coons, who they have used in multiple cases in Texas. And Dr. Coons has basically been found by the courts to be an unreliable witness. His testimony and his science has been found to be junk science, but yet they still are moving forward with Brent's execution in spite of that.
—Shawn Nolan
Nolan says Coons' testimony should be ignored because he never met with Brewer to give him an examination.
The regulations for doctors to testify about somebody's mental status require them to examine the person, and that did not happen in this case. He never met Brent, yet he got up on the stand and said that Brent had no conscience and that he would be a future danger to society, even in prison. That was just outrageous testimony. That should never have been presented to a court.
— Shawn Nolan
Brewer was given a second sentencing trial in 2009 where Coons testified for a seond time. Randall County District Attorney James Farren sought the death penalty and for the second time, a jury agreed.
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