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Gerald
Cornelius ELDRIDGE
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Revenge
Number of victims: 2
Date of murder:
January 4,
1993
Date of birth:
March 4,
1964
Victims profile: Cynthia Bogany, 28
(his former girlfriend) and her
daughter, Chirissa,
9
Method of murder:
Shooting
Location: Harris County, Texas, USA
Status: Sentenced to death June 24, 1994
The United States Court
of Appeals For the Fifth Circuit
HOUSTON -- A Houston man
convicted of killing his former girlfriend and her 9-year-old
daughter lost an appeal that contended he was ineligible for
execution because he was mentally disabled, moving him closer to
his punishment for the slayings more than 16 years ago.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals late Tuesday turned down Gerald Cornelius Eldridge, 45,
convicted of the fatal shootings of Cynthia Bogany, 28, and her
daughter, Chirissa. The two were gunned down at a north Houston
apartment where Bogany and Eldridge’s son, Terrell, 9, and
Bogany’s boyfriend at the time, Wayne Dotson, also were shot but
survived.
The New Orleans-based court specifically
refused to grant permission for Eldridge to move forward with his
appeal that contended an IQ test given to him showed his score was
72, making him mildly disabled.
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that mentally
disabled people may not be executed.
A federal district judge had rejected his
appeal, finding the results were unreliable because the defense
expert hired to conduct the test failed to consider or test for
the possibility that Eldridge deliberately performed poorly on the
test. Earlier tests showed his IQ to be higher and school records
supported prosecution arguments that he was not mentally disabled.
Bogany and her daughter were killed Jan. 4,
1993, at their Houston apartment. Terrell Bogany testified at
Eldridge’s capital murder trial and told jurors his father shot
his sister between the eyes at close range after he’d kicked in
the door. He also described the shooting of Dotson and his own
shooting, how his father stood over him and shot at his head. He
said he turned his head and the bullet wound up in his shoulder.
He also said he saw his mother run from the apartment as Eldridge
pursued her.
She was shot outside as she ran to another
apartment.
At his 1994 trial, Eldridge refused to sit
through the punishment phase. A Harris County jury deliberated
about 30 minutes before deciding on the death sentence.
Records showed Eldridge was sentenced in 1985
to eight years in prison for attempted murder for shooting a man
eight times. He was released three years later, then was returned
to prison in 1990 for beating his son. After his parole four
months later, records showed he tried to kill the boy.
Eldridge does not have an execution date.
Hoping to Avoid Execution,
Killer Cites Low IQ
The Houston Chronicle
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Attorneys for a Houston man sent to death row
in 1994 for killing his ex-girlfriend and her daughter are hoping
that a five-year-old Supreme Court ruling that forbids states from
executing the mentally retarded will save their client.
Gerald Cornelius Eldridge, 43, fatally shot
Cynthia Bogany, 28, and her 9-year-old daughter after storming
into their north Houston apartment. Eldridge also wounded his 7-year-old
son with Bogany in the January 1993 shooting spree.
Eldridge's attorneys are trying to convince a
Houston federal judge their client cannot be executed. Screenings
since childhood have estimated Eldridge's IQ as low as 61 and
higher than 110. Anything 70 or less is considered retarded.
Because the results of such examinations can
deviate by 5 points, someone can test as high as 75 and still be
considered mentally retarded under the high court's 2002 ruling.
"What we need to show is that he has an IQ less
than 75, that he has adaptive deficits in at least two areas and
that the onset of mental retardation began before age 18," said
his longtime attorney, Lee Wilson.
Patricia Averill, a psychologist, spent most of
Monday describing why she diagnosed Eldridge as mildly mentally
retarded.
