Nelson, who was 22 at the time of the murder, was convicted of sexually assaulting and stabbing 18-year-old Charla Wheat to death in her home in the 2500 block of Hunter during the early morning hours of Feb. 23, 1991. Her roommate, Carol Maynard, also was sexually assaulted and stabbed, but survived to testify against Nelson in his trial. In a pair of confessions he made to police at the time, Nelson said he was drunk and "schized" on cocaine when he killed Wheat.

Nelson had his sentence overturned by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in December 2006. At that time, the court ordered a new punishment phase trial for Nelson, who has been on death row for approximately 17 years.

Robert H. Moore III, 118th District Court judge, approved a deal between Nelson, who was represented by attorney Rusty Wall, and District Attorney Hardy Wilkerson that waived the state's right to re-seek the death penalty in return for two consecutive life sentences — meaning one would have to be served before Nelson could even begin serving the second — with no possibility of parole.

“I'm in no hurry this morning,” Moore told Nelson during the proceedings. “This is a very serious matter,  and I don't want you to be able to look back this afternoon, or even five years from now, and wish you had handled this differently. I don't want there to be any doubt that you understand what's going on here today.”

Nelson, who sat at the defendant's table wearing a blue prison uniform with his hands cuffed and legs in chains, told Moore he was ready to proceed.

Part of the bargain with the district attorney's office, Nelson agreed to waive his rights to parole from prison and to appeal — in both state and federal courts — as part of Thursday's decision. He also pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted capital murder for the stabbing-attack of Carol Maynard, who survived the attack, which took part in an apartment she and Wheat shared.

Also a part of the agreement, Nelson receives no credit for the 16-plus years he's already served on death row.

“I Don't know that in a case like this you can ever adequately say justice is served,” said Wilkerson. “The death penalty was out there, but i don't know that it would have provided the kind of justice and reconciliation they (the family) need. We had a lot of legal issues and a lot of factual issues that we had to reconcile in attempting to retry this case. We came to the conclusion if we could resolve it, this would probably be the most effective way to do things with a lower side of risk and a higher side of effective punishment than trying to take one shot at the death penalty.

“It would be a very awkward situation where if you didn't get the death penalty this guy could immediately — as in today — be eligible for parole. That was going to be an intolerable situation and something had to be done, and we had to do it in a way that would assure the safety of society and provide some satisfaction to the Wheat family. We did that by stacking two life sentences. He has waived his right to parole and given up 17 years that he's been in the system, waiving all of that time. He's starting from day one.”

Wilkerson said issues of mitigation were at the core of the appellate court's decision to retry the punishment phase of the trial.

“It essentially arose out of legal decisions that took place between 1991 and 2004 regarding mitigation issues,” said Wilkerson. “At the time, there was no way to have known to put that question in. Mitigation questions are things like drug abuse, being under the influence of alcohol, poor family home life — things people out here in West Texas may not even consider mitigating, but more aggravating. Those became issues the Supreme Court said you have to address in a certain way. It was new law we had no way of knowing about back in 1991, so it obviously wasn't included. So they said we would have to take it before a jury again and include those issues.

“It's a pretty technical thing when you start talking about a special issue in a question in the verdict of the sentencing phase of a capital trial, and this was in fact a technical thing. But in the current legal environment we live in, technicalities, in regards to capital law and and post conviction capital law, are everything, and you have to account for those very, very carefully. There are no small issues in a capital case. Every thing is huge.”

Wilkerson said the feelings of the Wheat family were considered very carefully before the decision to make the agreement was made.

“We consulted with the family on a very regular basis,” said Wilkerson. “We had several meetings and in direct and indirect communication, and they were very helpful, very insightful meetings for both sides. They were able to take an understanding of the change in the legal scenery that had taken place since 1991, as well as some of the difficulty in some of the factual issues, like the question of future danger.

“New things come about. Who the state used as an expert at that time is no longer available to us. We have a 17-year history to draw from and look at his disciplinary records since he's been on death row and in prison. And we were able to come to certain conclusions about the chances of obtaining a yes verdict on the question of future danger. It brought how we approached this into a whole new light and what were the tactically and strategically the best way to address these things. The family was very understanding of all this.”

And while Nelson has managed to dodge the needle, Wilkerson said Thursday's ending of the matter does bring about a certain level of satisfaction for him and his office.

“We'll hear no more of Billy Ray Nelson,” said Wilkerson firmly. “It's our goal that he toils for the remainder of his life in the anonymity of the Texas Department of Corrections, no longer the celebrity on death row, but merely the anonymous prisoner that no one ever hears from again. We hope he spends the rest of his life in prison.”

Contact Staff Writer Thomas Jenkins at 263-7331 ext. 232 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it