Texas man executed for fatal stabbing of real estate agent in 2006

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A Texas man convicted of killing a real estate agent inside a model home in 2006 was executed Wednesday night.

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Kosoul Chanthakoummane, 41, of Dallas, was put to death by lethal injection. He was pronounced dead at 6:33 p.m. CDT after receiving the injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, according to The Associated Press.

Chanthakoummane was convicted of fatally stabbing Sarah Anne Walker, 40, in July 2006, according to The Dallas Morning News. Walker was found stabbed more than 30 times at the model home in McKinney, located about 30 miles north of Dallas.

Chanthakoummane had successfully halted his execution twice, according to the newspaper. He cited questionable forensic techniques that led to his conviction.

He admitted to being inside the model home where her body was found but maintains his innocence, according to the Morning News.

Prosecutors said Chanthakoummane beat Walker with a wooden plant stand and stabbed her before stealing her Rolex watch and a silver ring, the AP reported. DNA evidence revealed that Chanthakoummane’s blood was found in various places inside the model home, including under Walker’s fingernails, according to the television station.

“The linchpin of the State’s case was the DNA evidence found at the scene and under Walker’s fingernails,” appellate judges wrote in a 2020 opinion.

Chanthakoummane’s lawyer, Eric Allen, said on Monday that a defense expert had given his opinion that his client could have been in the home days before the murder, the Morning News reported.

Before his death last year, Walker’s father, Joseph Walker, had opposed Chanthakoummane’s execution, according to the AP. He told the Times Union in 2013 that he had forgiven his daughter’s killer.

Chanthakoummane was the ninth inmate to be executed this year in the U.S., according to the AP.

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