Bio 

Julius Jerome Murphy was born on October 25, 1978, in Bowie County, Texas. Texas Department of Criminal Justice records list him as a Black male, 5 feet 10 inches tall, with black hair and brown eyes. He had completed the eighth grade and had worked as a warehouseman, food-service worker, and laborer before the murder case. He had no prior prison record before entering death row in 1998.

Murphy was 18 years old at the time of the offense. On September 17, 1997, he was at a gathering at his mother’s home with Christopher Solomon, Javarrow Young, Virginia Marie Wood, and Christina Davis. Testimony later showed that Solomon discussed a possible robbery while Murphy was nearby. Solomon also displayed a pistol from Wood’s car, and the weapon was passed around to others, including Murphy, before being returned to Solomon.

Murder Story

During the early morning hours of September 19, 1997, Julius Jerome Murphy was riding with Christopher Solomon, Virginia Marie Wood, and Christina Davis near Texarkana, Texas. The group saw Jason Erie, a 26-year-old man whose vehicle had broken down on the roadside. Solomon and the others stopped to help Erie jump-start his car, and Erie paid them five dollars for the assistance.

After the group saw Erie’s wallet, the situation changed from roadside assistance to robbery. According to trial evidence, Murphy agreed to return to Erie with the plan to rob him. Murphy stepped out of the vehicle armed with a .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol, demanded Erie’s wallet, and shot him once in the head when Erie resisted. TDCJ records summarize the case as a robbery in which Murphy shot a 26-year-old male once in the head with a .25-caliber semi-automatic weapon.

Erie was still alive when help arrived but died shortly afterward. Javarrow Young later testified that he saw Erie lying on the ground and flagged down an ambulance. Other witnesses, including Wood and Davis, testified for the prosecution. Murphy and Solomon did not testify at trial.

After the shooting, Murphy and the others fled through Arkansas and Tennessee before ending up in Arlington, Texas, where police apprehended them. Solomon, Murphy, and Wood were later charged with capital murder. Murphy was convicted in August 1998 of murdering Jason Erie during a robbery and was sentenced to death.

Murphy’s case later drew renewed legal attention. In 2015, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed his scheduled November 3, 2015 execution after his attorneys raised claims that prosecutors had threatened or pressured witnesses and had not disclosed that information to the defense. One witness later recanted and identified Murphy’s co-defendant as the shooter, according to Murphy’s attorneys.

As of the most current official TDCJ listing reviewed, Julius Jerome Murphy remains listed under TDCJ number 999279 with a death-row sentence for the September 19, 1997 murder of Jason Erie in Bowie County, Texas.