Summary of Offense:
On August 28, 1991, Carpenter murdered Nelda Henin, 52, while burglarizing her home in Dallas. Carpenter kicked in the front door of the woman's home and cut her throat.
Carpenter was sentenced to death in Dallas County in April 1999.
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March 21, 1999
Man convicted in love-triangle case
DALLAS (AP) - A Dallas County jury took less than three hours Friday to convict David Lynn Carpenter of slashing a woman's throat at the request of a jealous woman.
Carpenter, 31, the first defendant in a death-penalty case to be tried this year in Dallas County, faces either life in prison or lethal injection for the August 1991 crime.
The slaying of Nelda Henin, 53, in her Pleasant Grove home went unsolved for six years until investigators got a tip leading them to Carpenter's former girlfriend. The trail eventually led to evidence of a love triangle in which Ms. Henin was an unwitting participant.
Prosecutors believe that Ms. Henin was killed because of an on-and-off relationship she had with Gary Hall, and because of another woman's obsession with Hall.
That other woman, Evrin Sue Smith, testified this week that she had offered Carpenter $1,000 to kill Ms. Henin, then later tried to call off the hit.
Other evidence linking Carpenter to the crime included a letter he wrote his former girlfriend, Mandee McBay, urging her not to talk to police.
Ms. McBay said he had confessed Ms. Henin's murder to her and made her wash blood from his buck knife and shoes.
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