Facing execution, killer receives reprieve during last meal

Gerald Eldridge, 45, was condemned for the fatal shooting of his ex- 

girlfriend and her daughter nearly 17 years ago in Houston. Attorneys 
contended he was too mentally ill to receive lethal injection and made 
those arguments in an appeal to the courts. 

U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal in Houston agreed to delay the 
scheduled punishment for 90 days after the Texas Court of Criminal 
Appeals had rejected the appeal Monday. 

Gerald Cornelius Eldridge was too intelligent for his own good. At 
least that is what the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit 
concluded when it denied Eldridge’s request for a certificate of 
appealability on the issue of whether mental retardation renders him 
ineligible for the death penalty. 

A Houston jury voted to convict Eldridge and sentenced him to death 
for killing his former girlfriend, Cynthia Bogany, and her nine-year- 
old daughter, Chirissa. The case arose out of a shooting spree that 
took place on January 4, 1993, the day on which Eldridge shot Chirissa 
between the eyes at point-blank range and then shot Bogany twice in 
the head.  Eldridge also wounded his own son, Terrell, and another 
individual. 

Eldridge broke into Bogany’s apartment and shot Chirrisa as she slept 
on a couch.  After chasing Cynthia’s boyfriend from the apartment he 
returned to the living room and shot his natural 7-year old son 
Terrell in the shoulder.  He then chased down Cynthia on a stairwell 
outside the apartment and shot her to death as she begged for her 
life.