TEXAS LAST MEAL
CHARLES NEALY
March 20, 2007

..."tell the guys on death row I'm not wearing a diaper." ...

Last Meal: Nealy had no final meal request.

The skinny: Nealy, 42, was executed for a fatal shooting during a convenience store holdup in Dallas nearly 10 years ago.

More skinny: On the evening of August 20, 1997, as Charles Nealy, a man with a history of robberies, drove by the Expressway Mart in south Dallas, he told his nephew, Memphis Nealy, that he was going to “come back and get” the people at that store, because “the bitches” wouldn’t sell him “no Blackie mounds” (referring to Black and Milds, a brand of cigar).

Later that night, Charles Nealy drove to the Expressway Mart, with Reginald Mitchell and nephew Claude Nealy as passengers. Mitchell went in the store and paid for gasoline, then went out and pumped it. When he finished, Charles Nealy, armed with a shotgun, and with his nephew, Claude, toting a handgun, entered the store and demanded money.

The store owner was in the office taking a nap, while his brother and a 17-year old employee were behind the counter. Nealy entered the office and shot the owner in the chest with the shotgun. Nealy's nephew, Claude, then shot the owner's brother in the head. Both men died.

Nealy came out with a briefcase full of money and said, "I got the man in the office." The men then took cash from the register and grabbed a six-pack of beer and a bottle of wine, then left the store. These events were recorded on the store’s video camera and shown to the jury

Claude received a life sentence for the murder the owner's brother.

The getaway driver, Reginald Mitchell testified that as the three drove away, Charles Nealy said “in a little old happy tone” that “this is the way the Nealy’s do it.” Mitchell also testified Charles Nealy threatened to kill him if he told anyone about the robbery and shootings.

Mitchell received a two year sentence for his participation in the robbery.

Not a model prisoner: Nealy accumulated 70 disciplinary reports while in prison. While he was in jail awaiting trial for capital murder, Nealy and two other inmates assaulted another inmate, breaking his jaw.

At trial, after the assaulted inmate had testified, Nealy threatened him and shouted obscenities at him. Nealy was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.

From Death Row: "There's all kinds of weird stuff going on in this case," Charles Nealy said last week from death row, denying any involvement in the shootings. He said he was in Ardmore, Okla., at the time of the slayings, picking up a relative's truck.

He acknowledged the prospect of execution was scary. "Since I've been here, my dad died, my stepdad died, my mother died, one of my friends commited suicide," he said. "And I'm up here where people are dying, it seems, like every week. "Sometimes the Prozac just isn't enough."

Last words and such: Nealy made his last statement - a calm, 4½-minute monologue. In it, Nealy asked witnesses to "tell the guys on death row I'm not wearing a diaper." He then criticized the Dallas County assistant prosecutor who handled his case. "You messed up. Now to cover it up, the state is killing me. I'm not sad and bitter. I feel sad for everyone else. You have to stay here; I'm going to someplace better." Nealy wished his friends and relatives well and expressed love. "I'm not crying, so y'all don't cry. Don't be sad for me. I'm going to be with God and Allah and Momma." "Don't bury me in that prison graveyard, I want to be buried next to momma. By the way, the reason it took so long was because [they] couldn't find a vein. I used to tear up the doctor's office. I hate needles." Nealy continued talking as the lethal injection was administered. As he was losing consciousness, Nealy said he could "feel it."

Factoids: Nealy was the...

10th murderer executed in U.S. in 2007
1067th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
9th murderer executed in Texas in 2007
388th murderer executed in Texas since 1976