What more could he lose? It's beyond me .
HOUSTON (Jan. 9) - A Texas
death row inmate with a history of mental problems pulled out his only good eye
and told authorities he ate it.
Andre Thomas, 25, was arrested
for the fatal stabbings of his estranged wife, their young son and her
13-month-old daughter in March 2004. Their hearts also had been ripped out. He
was convicted and condemned for the infant's death.
Handout / AP
This mug shot of Andre Thomas was taken after he plucked out his right eye in
2004. Now, his left one is gone, too.
While in the Grayson County
Jail in Sherman, Thomas plucked out his right eye before his trial later in
2004. A judge subsequently ruled he was competent to stand trial.
A death-row officer at the
Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found Thomas in his
cell with blood on his face and took him to the infirmary.
""Thomas said he pulled out his
eye and subsequently ingested itpulled out his eye and subsequently ingested
it," agency spokesman Jason Clark said Friday.
Thomas was treated at East
Texas Medical Center in Tyler after the Dec. 9 incident. Then he was transferred
and remains at the Jester Unit, a prison psychiatric facility near Richmond
southwest of Houston.
"He will finally be able to
receive the mental health care that we had wanted and begged for from day 1,"
Bobbie Peterson-Cate, Thomas' trial attorney, told the Sherman Herald Democrat.
"He is insane and mentally ill. It is exactly the same reason he pulled out the
last one."
At his trial, defense lawyers
also argued he suffered from alcohol and drug abuse.
Thomas does not have an
execution date.