Bio

Elijah Dwayne Joubert was born on July 3, 1979, in Harris County, Texas. Texas Department of Criminal Justice records list him as a Black male from Harris County, with an eleventh-grade education and prior work as a laborer. He was 23 years old at the time of the offense and 25 when he was received on Texas death row.

Before the capital murder case, Joubert had a prior Texas prison record. TDCJ records show that he had previously served a four-year sentence from Harris County for aggravated assault under TDCJ-ID number 815113. He was discharged after completing that sentence.

By 2003, Joubert was associated with Dashan Glaspie and Alfred Brown. Court records state that Glaspie recruited Joubert and Brown to help commit a robbery at a check-cashing business in Houston. The plan first targeted one check-cashing location, but the group abandoned that attempt after the business owner arrived and appeared to be armed. They then drove to another Ace check-cashing location.

Murder Story

On April 3, 2003, Elijah Dwayne Joubert, Alfred Brown, and Dashan Glaspie went to rob a check-cashing business in Harris County, Texas. According to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the group first approached one check-cashing location, but when the owner arrived and displayed a handgun, Joubert and Brown returned to the vehicle and the group left. They then selected a second check-cashing store.

At the second location, clerk Alfredia Jones arrived to open the business. Joubert approached her at gunpoint and forced her inside. Glaspie and Brown entered shortly afterward. Joubert held a gun to Jones’s head and ordered her to open the safe. Glaspie checked the store for surveillance equipment, while Brown searched through Jones’s purse.

Jones was allowed to make a phone call to another store and said she was “opening Center 24.” Court records state that this was actually a distress code alerting others that a robbery was taking place. Houston Police Officer Charles Clark responded to the alarm and entered the store.

After Officer Clark arrived, Joubert accused Jones of alerting police and shot her. Evidence at trial suggested that Alfred Brown shot Officer Clark. Both Alfredia Jones and Officer Charles Clark died from gunshot wounds.

Glaspie later cooperated with prosecutors under a plea agreement. He pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery in exchange for a 30-year sentence and testified for the State against Joubert. Joubert gave a videotaped statement admitting his participation in the robbery but denying that he shot either victim. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that his statement was enough to corroborate Glaspie’s accomplice testimony by tending to connect him to the offense.

On October 11, 2004, a jury found Joubert guilty of capital murder. During trial, prosecutors argued that Joubert shot Alfredia Jones, while the defense argued that Joubert participated in the robbery but did not shoot anyone. The defense also argued that Glaspie was the actual shooter of Jones and had shifted blame to protect himself. Contemporary reporting stated that jurors deliberated about one hour before reaching the guilty verdict.

On January 13, 2005, Joubert was received by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice under a death sentence from Harris County. TDCJ lists his death-row number as 999492.

Joubert appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, raising seven points of error. On October 3, 2007, the court rejected his claims and affirmed the conviction and death sentence. The court held, among other things, that the accomplice-witness testimony was sufficiently corroborated and that the indictment did not need to include the capital punishment special issues.

Joubert later pursued federal habeas relief. In 2024, a federal district court denied relief. In September 2025, the Fifth Circuit also rejected his appeal, describing the case as involving the attempted robbery and murders of a check-cashing store employee and a police officer. Elijah Dwayne Joubert remains housed on death row at the Polunsky Unit.