November 4, 2004

Death Row death

HOUSTON (AP) - A condemned inmate from far northeast Texas was found hanging by a sheet in his death row cell in an apparent suicide, state prison officials said Wednesday.

Deon Tumblin, 27, was found Tuesday evening at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice outside Livingston, about 75 miles northeast of Houston.

He had been condemned for strangling a Texarkana woman, Evelyn Reed, 75, at her home in January 2000, then taking her car.

Efforts to resuscitate Tumblin at the scene failed and he was taken to the prison infirmary where he was pronounced dead.

The prison system's inspector general's office was investigating the death.

Tumblin, who arrived on death row in February 2001, did not have an execution date.

Police on the Arkansas side of Texarkana arrested Tumblin and a woman companion in the victim's car, which had been reported stolen.

Police said they also found Tumblin had some items that belonged to Reed, a widow who had been caring for her 46-year-old invalid daughter who lived with her.

The daughter, unable to speak, was in a bedroom of the home when her mother was killed, according to testimony at Tumblin's trial.

Prosecutors said Tumblin hit Reid with a wrench, choked her, broke a belt trying to strangle her and then slammed his knee into her neck. Prosecutors also said he had a history of impulsive violence, drug use and criminal behavior.

He earlier received a four-year term in Arkansas for forgery and firearms possession. He spent five months in prison and was paroled in May 1997.

Defense attorneys tried to portray Tumblin as the product of an abusive family who was teased as a child because of a problem with crossed eyes.

But physical evidence, Tumblin's statements to police and the testimony of his accomplice, Marsha Burnett, prompted a Bowie County jury to convict him and sentence him to death.

Burnett, now 24, received a life prison term in exchange for her testimony against him. Prosecutors had considered seeking the death penalty against her until she agreed to the plea deal.

She's imprisoned at the Mountain View Unit near Gatesville and isn't eligible for parole until 2040.

Burnett was identified as the daughter of a home health care nurse Reed had hired to help with the care for her own daughter. Burnett, who was the star witness at Tumblin's trial, had been to the victim's home numerous times, testimony showed.

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