Bio 

Anthony Cardell Haynes was born on January 22, 1979, in Harris County, Texas. Texas Department of Criminal Justice records list him as a Black male from Harris County, Texas. He completed 12 years of education and worked as a laborer before the crime. TDCJ records also list no prior prison record before the capital murder case.

Haynes was 19 years old at the time of the offense. Later reports and appeals described him as a young man with no prior criminal record who was under the influence of drugs on the night of the shooting. His lawyers later argued that his trial team failed to present available mitigating evidence about his background, youth, mental health, and character during the punishment phase of his capital trial.

On May 22, 1998, Haynes was driving around Houston in a pickup truck with other young men. Court records and later reporting state that the group had committed robberies earlier that night. Michael Turner was later listed by TDCJ as a co-defendant in the case.

The crime that led to Haynes’s death sentence occurred after a shot was fired from Haynes’s truck and struck the windshield of a vehicle being driven by off-duty Houston Police Department Officer Kent Kincaid. Kincaid was off duty and traveling with his wife when the incident happened. He followed the truck, believing at first that something had been thrown at his car.

Haynes’s case later became known not only because the victim was an off-duty police officer, but also because of the long appeal history that followed. His lawyers raised claims involving jury selection, race-based juror exclusion, and ineffective assistance of counsel during the punishment phase. Although one federal appeals ruling temporarily ordered that he be retried or released, that ruling did not stand.

Murder Story

At around 10:30 p.m. on May 22, 1998, off-duty Houston Police Department Officer Kent Kincaid and his wife left their home in a private vehicle. They were on their way to meet friends at a sports bar.

As they drove near a pickup truck driven by Anthony Cardell Haynes, something struck and cracked the Kincaids’ windshield. Officer Kincaid initially thought someone had thrown a rock, but court records later stated that Haynes had fired a shot from the truck.

Kincaid turned his vehicle around and followed Haynes’s truck. The two vehicles eventually pulled alongside each other. Kincaid got out of his vehicle and approached Haynes, who remained seated inside the truck.

Kincaid told Haynes that he had hit his window. Haynes responded that he had accidentally thrown something at the window. Kincaid then identified himself as a police officer and said they should talk about it. He asked for Haynes’s license and reached toward his back pocket, apparently to retrieve his police identification.

Haynes lifted a handgun and shot Kincaid in the head. He then fled the scene. Kent Kincaid died a few hours later from the gunshot wound.

Police traced the truck and arrested Haynes on May 24, 1998. After his arrest, he gave statements to police. Prosecutors later used those statements and other evidence to argue that Haynes knew Kincaid was a police officer and shot him to avoid arrest.

Haynes was charged with capital murder under Texas law for murdering a peace officer who was acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty. The key issue for the capital charge was whether Haynes knew Kincaid was a police officer when he fired the fatal shot.

On September 17, 1999, a Harris County jury convicted Anthony Cardell Haynes of capital murder. During the punishment phase, the jury answered Texas’s special punishment issues in a way that required a death sentence. Haynes was received on Texas death row on November 3, 1999.

Haynes appealed his conviction and sentence. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and death sentence in 2001, and the United States Supreme Court later denied review.

In 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled in Haynes’s favor on a jury-selection claim and ordered that he be retried or released. Haynes had argued that prosecutors improperly excluded Black prospective jurors from his trial. In 2010, the United States Supreme Court reversed that ruling, holding that the Fifth Circuit had misapplied the standard for reviewing the trial court’s decision. The case returned to the Fifth Circuit, and the conviction and sentence remained in place.

Haynes was scheduled for execution on October 18, 2012. The United States Supreme Court granted a stay shortly before the execution. The stay allowed further litigation over claims that his trial lawyers had failed to investigate and present mitigating evidence during the punishment phase.

In 2018, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the denial of relief on Haynes’s later federal challenge. In 2019, the United States Supreme Court declined to review the case. As of the most recent Texas Department of Criminal Justice listing reviewed, Anthony Cardell Haynes remains on Texas death row under TDCJ number 999330.