HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) – The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has halted the scheduled execution next month of a North Carolina parolee convicted of killing a suburban Dallas real estate agent 11 years ago.
Kosoul Chanthakoummane had been set for lethal injection July 19.
The state’s highest criminal court Wednesday sent his case back to the trial court in Collin County to review an appeal that contends improper forensic evidence and scientifically invalid testimony was used to convict him and that he’s innocent of the slaying of real estate agent Sarah Walker.
Chanthakoummane had been paroled to Dallas to live with relatives after serving time for a Charlotte, North Carolina, abduction and robbery when he was arrested two months after Walker was beaten and stabbed at a model home in McKinney.
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