Summary of Offense:

Convicted and sentenced to death for the October 29, 1993 murder of 84-year-old Martha Lennox.

Pondexter and accomplices Ricky Bell, Deon Williams, and James Henderson met together and discussed robbing Martha Lennox, a wealthy 84-year-old woman in Clarksville. They parked a few blocks away. On their first attempt to enter the house, they saw a patrolling police car. The men ran back to their car, but later returned to Lennox's house. After Pondexter kicked in the front door, all four of them went inside and went upstairs to Lennox's bedroom. The victim was there, sitting on her bed. Williams then took seven dollars from the victim's coin purse. Lennox was then shot twice in the head with a nine-mm pistol.

The intruders then fled in the victim's car. Pondexter and his companions drove Lennox's car to Dallas, using the money they stole to buy gas. The day after the murder, they were arrested after attempting to rob a man on the street. At Pondexter's trial, Deon Williams testified that Henderson shot Lennox in the head first, then handed the gun to Pondexter. Pondexter then shot Lennox in the head and said, "that's how you smoke a bitch." James Lee Henderson was also convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. He remains on death row.

Henderson was sentenced to death in Bowie County in June 1994.

Co-defendant Willie Earl Pondexter, Jr. was executed on March 23, 2009. For more on Pondexter, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...ight=pondexter