In 1995 Garcia Glen White finally started talking to police. What emerged was a brutal, sometimes deceitful account of five murders committed between 1989 and 1995 - a chilling story KPRC 2 Investigates explores in this episode of ‘The Evidence Room.’
‘Then I hit him.’
White, then 32, was arrested in July 1995 after an accomplice told police he was involved in the murder of convenience store owner, Hai Pham. White was brought in for questioning and told police he and another man went in to Pham’s store pretending to be customers.
White told police when Pham turned his back to grab a particular product, he rushed inside the vestibule surrounding the checkout counter.
“When he turned his back to get the bicycle patches that’s when I grabbed him and pushed him to the floor, then I hit him,” White told detectives in 1995.
White said when Pham started to sit up he kicked him in the chest, and when he fell back his head hit a shelf. After stealing $260 from the register, White and his accomplice ran out of the store.
Pham, who moved to the US from Vietnam with his family nine months before his murder, was White’s fifth victim.
‘How many times did you hit her?’
After confessing to Pham’s murder, police then questioned White about the 1989 murder of Greta Williams. The 27-year old had just moved to Houston from Chicago when she was found beaten to death inside a northeast Houston house.
“She passed by me and I asked her, ‘what’s up?’ She says, ‘nothing.’ You know, she said, ‘what’s up with you?‘” White told police.
White told police after he had sex with Williams he believed she stole money out of his pockets. White said he hit Williams when she tried to leave.
“How many times did you hit her?” detectives asked.
“I hit her about three times to be exact, I hit her about three times,” White said.
“Hit her pretty hard?” detectives asked.
“Yeah, I hit her pretty hard,” White said.
White told investigators he then wrapped Williams in carpet and left her in the house. Two weeks later he returned with someone White described as his step-brother. White said the man inquired about the odor so he called animal control and told his stepbrother he thought a dog died.
Williams' body was discovered a short time later after workers with the health department called police.
‘I panicked, man.’
Detectives then questioned White about the Dec. 1989 murders of Bonita Edwards and her twin 16-year old daughters, Annette and Bernette. All three were stabbed to death and one of the girls had been sexually assaulted.
White initially told detectives he went to Edwards' apartment to do drugs with another man by the name of Terrence Moore. White claimed Edwards had sex with Moore and him, then became angry when they didn’t share drugs with her.
“She looked in the kitchen drawer and grabbed the knife and that’s when Terrence grabbed the knife from her,” White told police.
“Did he stab her once or a bunch of times?” police asked.
“I can’t even remember, when he stabbed her the first time I just, like, fell back to the floor,” White said.
White then told investigators Edwards' daughters came out of their room because their mother was screaming.
“Terrence ran towards the bedroom, one of them, both of them came out. One of them tried to go like towards the front door and that’s the one I grabbed,” White said. “Terrence ran on out the bedroom and that’s when he come in there and stabbed her, man. And I was on out of there man, I just, man I panicked, man. I just couldn’t, I never seen nothing like that. I don’t know why he did it.”
“Those girls deserve to die?” a detective asked.
“No sir, they didn’t,” White said.
“Then how come you didn’t come forward sooner and tell us about what happened?” the detective asked.
“I was scared man, I was scared, OK, I was scared,” White said.
After giving this statement, detectives learned Terrence Moore died 4-months before Edwards and her daughters were murdered. Confronted with that information, White then confessed to killing all three.
White was convicted in 1996 of murdering Annette and Bernette. The other murders were used during the punishment phase of his trial, which ended with a death sentence.
“What we’re dealing with is two capital murders, five dead victims, three different transactions, two teenage girls, his DNA and his blood. His DNA is at the crime scene of the triple homicide,” said Josh Reiss, chief of the post conviction writ division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. “It is very difficult not to look at the crime scene photos of these two young girls and not cry at the lives they could have led.”
‘The victims and their families are never made whole.’
White was executed on Oct. 1, 2024. During his final statement he took responsibility for the murders of the teens.
"I would like to apologize for all the wrong I have done, and for pain I’ve caused to the Edwards family. I regret, I apologize, and I pray that you can find peace," White said.
White did not mention Pham or Williams in his final statement. He then sang the hymn, ‘I Trust in God.’
Family members of the victims witnessed White’s execution, but declined to make any public statements. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg spoke on their behalf.
“There wasn’t any question about his guilt, it’s not a circumstantial case. It is brutal stabbing deaths, beating deaths; things that caused these victims a great deal of pain in their last moments of life,” said Ogg. “The victims and their families are never made whole by the executions, but at least the legal process finally comes to a conclusion.”
