Bio 

Calvin Eugene King was born on October 31, 1953. He was born and raised in Texas, growing up in an environment heavily impacted by systemic adversity and personal struggle before his life was ultimately derailed by a severe, long-standing addiction to crack cocaine. Throughout his adulthood, King cycled repeatedly through the Texas criminal justice system, accumulating a string of non-violent felony convictions in Dallas County during the 1980s and early 1990s, including multiple counts of theft and burglary. 

His compounding substance abuse issues eventually escalated to violence while he was out on parole in February 1994, during a drug transaction in a Beaumont motel room, King and an accomplice robbed and brutally murdered 21-year-old Billy Wayne Ezell. He was subsequently convicted of capital murder, spent several years on Texas death row, and was executed by lethal injection at the age of 48 on September 25, 2002.

Murder Story

On the night of February 25, 1994, Calvin King, Leonard Johnson, Danyell Williams, and Carlette Gibbs met in Room 38 of the Cedar Sands Motel in Beaumont, Texas. King had rented the room earlier that day. During the night, the group smoked crack cocaine. King was also buying and selling crack throughout the evening.

Billy Wayne Ezell, a 21-year-old from Silsbee, came to Room 38 several times to sell crack cocaine to the people inside. While in the room, Ezell showed a large roll of money. Everyone in the room saw it. King later bought $60 worth of crack from him, and Ezell left.

At about 4:00 a.m., King and Johnson sent Williams and Gibbs home in a cab. They told the women they were going to sell the crack they had just bought. Shortly before dawn, Ezell went to Room 26, where his friends Kenneth Goodwin and Angelita Williams were staying. King later knocked on the door and asked Ezell to come upstairs. Ezell left Room 26 and went back to Room 38.

Ezell’s body was later found in Room 38. He was lying face down, partly covered by a blanket, and nude from the waist down. A broken lamp was near him, and the lamp cord was wrapped around his neck. The room was in disorder, suggesting a struggle had taken place. Ezell had suffered blunt-force injuries to both sides of his head and multiple stabbing and cutting wounds to his head, face, throat, chest, and back. Two wounds severed major blood vessels, and his diaphragm was punctured. He also had defensive wounds on his arms and hands. In total, he suffered 37 major stab wounds. The pathologist described the severity of the attack as “overkill.”

After the killing, King and Johnson went to the home of Williams and Gibbs. King had blood on his shirt and appeared to have been in a fight, though he was not injured. King and Johnson produced a roll of blood-covered money. King washed the money and dried it in the oven. Gibbs later saw that King had a large amount of crack and that money was spread out drying.

Witnesses later testified that King made admissions after the killing. Billy Hickman, who lived in the same house as Danyell Williams, said King and Johnson watched a news report about the Cedar Sands killing and that King said, “I done kill and I’ll kill again.” Gibbs testified that King told her, “I’m the one kill him. I’m the one that hit him over the head with a lamp, put a cord around his neck and slice his throat.”

King was indicted on March 31, 1994, for capital murder during the course of robbery. He pleaded not guilty, but a jury found him guilty on June 22, 1995. On June 23, 1995, after a separate punishment hearing, he was sentenced to death. Leonard Johnson pleaded guilty and received a life sentence.

King’s conviction and death sentence were affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on September 24, 1997. His later state and federal habeas challenges were denied. Calvin Eugene King was executed by lethal injection in Texas on September 25, 2002.