A judge has granted a postponement to next week’s scheduled execution of a man who was convicted of killing a real estate agent in a McKinney, Texas, model home more than a decade ago.
Kosoul Chanthakoummane, 36, was set to die by lethal injection on Jan. 25. A court found him guilty of stabbing a real estate agent to death in 2006. State District Judge Ben Smith granted Collin County prosecutors requested to move the date to allow more time to review new appeals in the case. The defense had asked for the execution sentence to be completely removed.
Chanthakoummane’s execution date has been reset for July 19.
In 2006, Chanthakoummane was living in Dallas with relatives, still on parole from convictions of aggravated robbery and kidnapping stemming from age 16 while he was living in North Carolina. Shortly after he came to Dallas, he was arrested on charges of slaying real estate agent Sarah Walker, 40. Medical examiners testified during the trial that Walker had been beaten, bitten, and stabbed 33 times. A couple who had been house hunting discovered Walker’s body inside the model home in McKinney, a suburb in Dallas. Walker’s jewelry also had been stolen.
Police had linked DNA from the scene to Chanthakoummane.
Source: “Execution of Dallas-Area Real Estate Agent’s Killer Reset,” The Associated Press (Jan. 18, 2017)
