13 April 2010 :

U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish says the state of Texas must give serial killer Faryion Wardrip, 51, white, a new punishment trial within 180 days or agree to life in prison. The judgment agreed with a July 25, 2008 decision of Judge Paul D. Stickney who recommended that the death penalty be overturned because of ineffective defense. Wardrip was sentenced to death in 1999 for the Dec. 21, 1984 death of 20-year-old Terry Sims. He pleaded guilty to her murder, and a Denton County jury decided on a death sentence in the capital case. DNA linked Wardrip to Sims’ murder as well as to the deaths of Toni Gibbs, Ellen Blau and Debra Taylor. He also confessed to killing 23-year-old Toni Gibbs, 21-year-old Ellen Blau and 25-year-old Debra Taylor — all in 1985 — and received life sentences in each of those cases. The cases remained unsolved for years. When the investigation and DNA evidence finally led to Wardrip in those four cases, he already had served 11 years in prison and been paroled for the 1986 murder of Tina Kimbrew.