Texas' highest criminal court denied an appeal Wednesday from a woman who was sentenced to death for the killing of her developmentally disabled babysitter four years ago.
Kimberly Cargill, of Whitehouse in East Texas, was convicted of killing 39-year-old Cherry Walker in June 2010.
Prosecutors say Cargill was facing a child abuse investigation and that she had already lost custody of one of her two children to her mother. They say she killed Walker to keep her from testifying at a custody hearing.
Walker's body was found on the side of a road in Smith County. It had been doused with lighter fluid and set on fire, and an autopsy determined that she died of asphyxiation.
Cargill testified at her trial that Walker suffered a seizure while she was driving Walker home after a pleasant dinner at a restaurant, and that she panicked and didn't act rationally. She said she set Walker's body on fire to get rid of any of her own DNA that may have been on her.
In her appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Cargill argued that the evidence against her wasn't sufficient to justify a capital murder charge. She also said the trial judge improperly allowed testimony about how she acted enraged and screamed during phone calls to state child welfare officials and about how she had choked her two children and her mother, who had been given temporary custody of one of the children.
She also said her legal counsel at trial was insufficient, that the judge improperly refused to allow testimony from a defense expert about the effects of prescription drugs on physical illness, and she made constitutional challenges to the Texas death penalty.
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Cargill does not have an execution date and can still pursue federal appeals. She is among seven women on death row in Texas.
