Bio

Khristian Phillip Oliver was born on August 26, 1977, in Harris County, Texas. He attended school in Texas and completed 12 years of education. As a teenager, Oliver began to engage in criminal activities. He was known to participate in burglary with others in his community. Over time, he developed a reputation for petty crimes, which escalated as he got older. By 1998, when he was just 20 years old, he was involved in a serious crime that would change his life forever.

Oliver worked as a laborer. His life took a downward turn as he became more involved in violent activities leading up to the crime he was later convicted for.

Murder Story

On March 17, 1998, Khristian Oliver, along with three juvenile accomplices, planned to rob Joe Collins, a 64-year-old man in Nacogdoches County, Texas. They knocked on Collins' door, but when no one answered, they believed he was not home. Oliver and one of the juveniles, Lonnie Rubalcaba, returned to the house armed with bolt cutters and a .380-caliber handgun while the others waited in their vehicle.

After entering the house by cutting the padlock on the door, Oliver and Lonnie began to gather items to steal. However, Collins unexpectedly returned home while they were in the house. As they tried to escape, Collins confronted them, grabbing a rifle and shooting Lonnie in the leg. In response, Oliver shot Collins in the face with his handgun.

The violence escalated when Oliver took the rifle from Collins and hit him multiple times in the face with it. After shooting Collins while he was on the ground, the group fled the scene. They later tried to cover up the crime by claiming Lonnie had been shot by someone else while they were at a farm. However, this story unraveled when deputies questioned the others involved, who eventually admitted to the truth of what happened.

Oliver and his girlfriend, Sonya Reed, were arrested the next day at a motel in Waco, Texas. They faced serious charges, including capital murder. During his trial, evidence emerged regarding several burglaries Oliver had committed in the past. Oliver was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 1999.

After years of appeals, he was executed by lethal injection on November 5, 2009. In his final moments, Oliver expressed his regrets to the victim's family and recited part of Psalm 23 before the lethal drugs took effect.