Murder of Chere Jo Horton

On the night of July 3–4, 1954, three-year-old Chere Jo Horton went missing after her parents left her alone outside while they were inside the Lazy A tavern in San Antonio, Texas. A search was launched, and a car was found with the girl's underwear hanging from its door. Jimmy Shaver, a technical instructor stationed at a local Air Force base, was found nearby shirtless and covered in scratches. Chere Jo's body was subsequently found nearby; she had been raped and murdered.

Shaver, described as a thrice-married airman third class, initially blamed another airman, Sumpter Brawley, who was briefly held as a material witness before being released. After Shaver was taken into custody, police received tips of a possible attempted lynching, and he was moved to a secret location, later revealed to be the Travis County jail in Austin. On July 13, 1954, a Bexar County grand jury formally indicted Shaver. A change of venue moved the trial from San Antonio to Brady, Texas. Shaver's court-appointed attorney, Manual C. Gonzales, petitioned for Shaver to be examined by an Air Force psychiatrist, and additional defense attorneys later joined the case. Air Force psychiatrists signed an affidavit stating Shaver was "not able to distinguish right from wrong," and three psychiatrists testified he was insane. Chief psychiatrist Louis West testified about examining Shaver under hypnosis and truth serum. A jury nonetheless found Shaver sane.

At trial, the state called Chere Jo's parents, the tavern owner, Airman Sumpter Brawley (who had spent time with Shaver that evening), and three other airmen who had visited the tavern. Prosecutors introduced a statement Shaver made on the day of his arrest: "If she was raped and if she is dead then I must be responsible since I was the one who picked her up and put her in my care." The defense began presenting its case on September 30. Shaver was convicted at his first trial, but his attorneys alleged juror misconduct after evidence emerged that two jurors had vowed to sentence him to death before the trial began. The trial judge denied a motion for a new trial, but an appeals court later ruled the trial unfair. Shaver was convicted again at a retrial.

Shaver was scheduled for execution but received a stay just three hours before it was to occur on February 5, 1958, after another prisoner, Donald Summers, confessed to the murder. Summers later recanted, stating that Shaver had offered to pay him to take credit for the crime. Shaver received a further stay on March 18, 1958. He was ultimately executed in the electric chair on July 25, 1958. The case was later discussed in 2019 writings by Tom O'Neill and Dan Piepenbring, as well as in a 2025 documentary by Errol Morris.