Derrick Jermaine Guillen was found guilty in 1999 for raping, robbing and murdering Margaret Shores in Temple on March 26, 1998, and sentenced to death. However, because he was 17 at the time of the crime, his sentence was commuted to life in prison on June 24, 2005, after the Supreme Court ruled those 17 and younger could not be sentenced to death for their crimes.
Denard Manns, 32, was sentenced to death on March 4, 2002, for killing 25-year-old Army medic Michele Christine Robson after he sexually assaulted her in her apartment on Nov. 18, 1998. After shooting her four times in the head, he took her credit cards, cash and car.
Two Death Row inmates from Bell County have been executed.
Christopher Black Sr. was 43 when he was executed on July 9, 2003, for killing his 17-month-old granddaughter Katrese Houston on Feb. 7, 1998. Black also had been charged with killing his wife Gwendolyn Black, and 5-month-old-daughter Christina Black. After shooting them, he called 911. When officers arrived, he was holding his dead daughter in his arms.
Thomas Barefoot was 39 when he was executed on Oct. 30, 1984, for killing a Harker Heights police officer to avoid arrest on Aug. 7, 1978. Barefoot was wanted in New Mexico on charges of raping a 3-year-old girl.
