Lisa Underwood Case: Murder, Trial, Appeals, and Execution

The Lisa Underwood case involved the February 2005 murders of a seven-months-pregnant Fort Worth business owner and her seven-year-old son, Jayden, by Underwood’s ex-boyfriend Stephen Dale Barbee. Barbee was convicted of capital murder in 2006, sentenced to death, and executed by lethal injection on November 16, 2022, after more than 16 years of appeals that touched on ineffective assistance of counsel, discredited forensic testimony, and a death-row inmate’s right to have a spiritual adviser in the execution chamber.

Who Lisa and Jayden Were

Lisa Underwood was 34 and co-owned a Fort Worth bagel shop called Boopa’s Bagel Deli, named after a baby nickname for her son.¹ She was raising seven-year-old Jayden on her own and was expecting a daughter she planned to name Marleigh.² She had met Stephen Barbee about two years earlier at the bagel shop. Their romantic relationship ended in the fall of 2004.

What Happened in February 2005

On Saturday, February 19, 2005, Lisa and Jayden didn’t arrive at a baby shower being held for her that afternoon at Boopa’s. Friends and family reported them missing and an Amber Alert went out.³ Police found blood inside the Underwood home but no signs of forced entry.¹

Two days later, Lisa’s Dodge Durango was found partly submerged in a creek in rural Denton County, about 30 miles northeast of Fort Worth.⁴ The next morning, Barbee was arrested in Tyler, Texas, booked into the Smith County Jail on a capital murder charge, and held on $2 million bond.³

In custody, Barbee confessed. During an unrecorded statement given on a bathroom break, he told detectives he had suffocated Lisa by holding her face into the carpet until she stopped breathing, and had killed Jayden by holding his hand over the boy’s nose and mouth.⁵ He then led police to a shallow grave near a pond in Denton County, roughly 25 miles north of Fort Worth, where he had buried both victims after driving them there in his SUV.¹

Barbee’s wife, Trish, spoke with him in the police interview room. She asked how he killed Lisa, and he answered, “I held her down too long.” That exchange was recorded.⁶ Barbee later recanted, saying the detective had threatened him with the death penalty and that his employee Ron Dodd had threatened his family, and claiming Dodd alone committed the killings while he only helped hide the bodies.⁷

Why Barbee Killed Them

Barbee told investigators he killed Lisa because she was going to “ruin his family” and his relationship with his wife. Lisa believed Barbee was the father of her unborn child and had been pressing him to tell his wife. Barbee refused unless she agreed to a paternity test, and, according to his account, she kept contacting him, leaving notes, and appearing at his workplace.⁵

At trial, DNA testing proved Barbee was not the biological father. Tarrant County prosecutor Kevin Rousseau disclosed during opening statements that the actual father was another man Lisa had dated in 2004, a point confirmed by testimony from her friend and business partner Holly Pils.⁸ Legally, it didn’t matter. Prosecutors argued Barbee acted on his belief that the baby was his and that the pregnancy would destroy his marriage.

Ron Dodd’s Role

Ronald Royce Dodd, Barbee’s employee, was the only other person charged. Dodd said Barbee called him claiming to have run out of gas, and that he brought a shovel and a gas can but left after seeing the bodies in Barbee’s vehicle, later picking Barbee up in Denton.⁹¹⁰

Dodd was also living with Barbee’s ex-wife, Theresa Dowling, at the time of the murders, in the house Theresa had once shared with Barbee. Despite being divorced, Barbee and Theresa still ran a tree-trimming and concrete-cutting business together.⁵

The 2006 Trial

Barbee was tried for capital murder in the 213th Judicial District Court of Tarrant County before Judge Bob Gill.¹¹ The whole trial, including sentencing, took fewer than three days in February 2006.¹²

The prosecution built its case on Barbee’s own words. Medical examiner Dr. Marc Krouse testified that Lisa died of asphyxiation and smothering and that her unborn daughter died of fetal asphyxiation caused by her mother’s death.¹³

Barbee’s lead attorney, Bill Ray, made an unusual choice. Rather than argue innocence, Ray conceded Barbee was physically involved in Lisa’s death but argued he lacked the specific intent required for capital murder. The defense pointed to cross-examination in which Dr. Krouse acknowledged the suffocation could have lasted as little as 30 seconds and that a woman in her third trimester had less cardiovascular reserve, making death by asphyxiation faster.⁶ The jury rejected the theory. On February 27, 2006, Barbee was convicted of capital murder for intentionally causing both deaths during the same criminal transaction, and he was sentenced to death.¹⁴

16 Years of Appeals

Barbee’s case moved through state and federal courts for more than 16 years. Three appellate threads mattered most.

The Concession-of-Guilt Claim

Barbee argued his trial attorney violated his Sixth Amendment rights by conceding guilt without permission. Barbee said he had maintained his innocence and that the closing-argument concession was “a complete surprise.”¹⁵ The claim gained force in 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided McCoy v. Louisiana, holding that a defendant has the right to insist counsel not admit guilt even when the lawyer believes a concession offers the best chance of avoiding execution.¹⁶

In September 2019, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Barbee’s scheduled execution to consider whether McCoy applied.⁷ The court ultimately ruled he was not entitled to a new trial, finding he had not clearly told his attorneys his strategy included an innocence claim and that there was no record of him objecting before the concession was made.¹⁷

Challenges to the Forensic Testimony

Barbee’s team also attacked Dr. Krouse’s asphyxiation testimony, which had been central to the state’s rebuttal of the accidental-death theory. A 2021 clemency application cited an audit that identified 59 mistakes across 40 of Dr. Krouse’s homicide cases and noted he had been fired from his position. The defense asked for a 120-day reprieve for further investigation.¹⁸ No court overturned the conviction on that ground.

Religious-Adviser and Disability Claims

As execution dates were set and reset, Barbee sought to have his Salvation Army spiritual adviser present in the execution chamber to pray aloud and physically touch him. In October 2021, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt stayed the execution, finding that Texas’ refusal to allow those accommodations violated Barbee’s constitutional rights.¹⁹ Judge Hoyt later issued a second injunction ordering the state to adopt a formal written policy on spiritual advisers.²⁰

Barbee’s attorneys separately argued that his physical disability, which prevented him from fully straightening his arms, meant strapping him to the execution gurney would cause “intolerable pain and suffering.” Judge Hoyt dismissed that challenge on November 15, 2022, after prison officials said they would let his arms remain bent and identify alternative IV placement if needed.¹²

The 2022 Execution

On November 16, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit lifted Judge Hoyt’s remaining stay, ruling that he had exceeded his authority in ordering Texas to draft a new general policy and should instead have required the prison to follow through on its stated intent to allow the accommodations. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene in a brief, unsigned order with no public dissents.²⁰

Barbee was executed by lethal injection that evening at the Texas state penitentiary in Huntsville. He was pronounced dead at 7:35 p.m.¹⁷ Prison officials permitted his spiritual adviser to touch him and pray aloud during the procedure.¹² In his final statement, Barbee thanked his minister and supporters and said, “God knows the truth. He is the truth, the way, and the life,” before saying he was “ready to go home.”²¹

1
CBS News. Ex Arrested in Texas Double Murder
2
NBC News. Ex-Boyfriend Confesses to Killings of Pregnant Woman, Son
3
ABC News. Bodies of Missing Pregnant Woman, Son Found
4
KTRE. Ex-Boyfriend Arrested in Tyler, Confesses to Deaths of Lisa and Jayden Underwood
5
GovInfo. Barbee v. Thaler, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
6
Findlaw. Barbee v. Davis, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
7
Texas Tribune. Texas Court Halts Execution of Stephen Barbee
8
Midland Reporter-Telegram. Murder Suspect Wasn’t Father of Victim’s Unborn Child
9
SFGate. Man Sentenced to 10 Years for Helping Friend Hide Bodies
10
Texas Executions. Stephen Barbee Execution Report
11
CBS News Texas. Judge Says Attorney Did Well With Texas Death Case
12
CBS News. Texas Executes Stephen Barbee for Murder of Pregnant Ex-Girlfriend and Her Son
13
U.S. Supreme Court. Barbee v. Texas, Brief in Opposition
14
U.S. Supreme Court. Barbee v. Texas, Brief in Opposition
15
KCBD. Texas Court Halts Execution of Stephen Barbee to Consider U.S. Supreme Court Precedent
16
U.S. Supreme Court. Barbee v. Texas, Petition for Writ of Certiorari
17
Texas Tribune. Texas Executes Stephen Barbee
18
Death Penalty Information Center. Stephen Barbee Clemency Application
19
Death Penalty Information Center. Stephen Barbee
20
SCOTUSblog. Justices Green-Light Texas Execution of Man Who Raised Religious Rights Claim
21
Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Stephen Barbee Last Statement