JUST IN: Blaine Milan Smith Execution | Crime, Last Meal + Final Words | Death Row US Texas

JUST IN: Blaine Milan Smith Execution | Crime, Last Meal + Final Words | Death Row US Texas

On September 25th, 2025, after spending more than 15 years on death row, Blaine Milm was executed by lethal injection at Texas death row prison. In this video, we will talk about what happened, his last words, and his last meal. To understand how Blaine Milm ended up on that gurnie, we have to go back to the morning of December 2nd, 2008.

 At 10:37 a.m. on December 2nd, 2008, a young man named Blaine Milm dialed 911 from a trailer on a rural road in Tatum, Texas. His first words were flat, almost rehearsed. My name is Blaine Milm, and my daughter, I just found her dead. 20 minutes later, Sergeant Kevin Roy of the Rusk County Sheriff’s Department arrived at the scene.

 Two ambulances were already there. EMTs stood frozen in the doorway of the master bedroom. When Sergeant Roy looked inside, he understood why they had stopped. A baby lay on her back, completely still. What the sergeant observed made it immediately clear this was not a natural death. This was not an accident. This was a crime scene.

 Blaine Milum was 18 years old. He had been living in that trailer with his fianceé, Jessica Carson, also 18. The baby was Jessica’s daughter from a previous relationship, a little girl named Amora. Her biological father was serving in the army overseas. Blaine had called Amora his daughter. He told people her first word was daddy and he meant him.

 Now that baby was dead, and investigators were about to discover that nothing Blaine Milm told them that morning was true. Blaine and Jessica were separated for questioning. What followed was a series of lies that would unravel over the coming hours. First, Blaine told Sergeant Roy that he and Jessica had left the baby alone in the trailer.

 They walked up the road to meet a man named Clark, who was going to clear some land for them. They were gone about an hour. When they came back, they found her like that. Texas Ranger Kenny Ray arrived and conducted his own interview with Milom. This time, the story changed. Now my mom said they found the baby not in her crib but in a hole in the bathroom floor where he had been doing some remodeling.

 Ranger Ray knew he was being lied to. He told Milam as much. Most people he said would suspect that you as the only male in the house were responsible. Milam denied any involvement. He offered to take a polygraph but the lies were already falling apart. Shane and Dwight Clark of Clark Timber confirmed they had never met with Milam that day.

 Surveillance video from a pawn shop in Henderson showed Blaine and Jessica pawning a chainsaw and an air hammer that very morning. Why would a young couple need quick cash on the same morning a baby died in their home? The answer would lead investigators into territory none of them had prepared for. When investigators finally got the truth from Jessica Carson, the [clears throat] story that emerged was beyond anything they could have imagined.

 According to Jessica, Blaine had told her that baby Amora was possessed by a demon. The demon had a name, Martha. The reason for the possession, God was tired of Amora lying to Blaine, a baby who couldn’t even walk. Lying to a grown man possessed by a demon named Martha. This was the reality that Blaine Milm had constructed.

 And somehow he had convinced Jessica Carson to believe it. the money they had raised that morning at the pawn shop. They were trying to hire a priest to perform an exorcism. Blaine had been raised Pentecostal, but in the months before Amora’s death, his interests had turned darker. He became fascinated with the occult, with demonology, with the idea that he and Jessica had special powers.

After his father died in September 2008, just 3 months before the murder, Blaine and Jessica bought a Ouija board. They were trying to contact his dead father. Something shifted in that trailer. Whether it was grief, methamphetamine, mental illness, or something else entirely. The young man who had cried over his father’s death began to see demons everywhere, including in the face of a baby who couldn’t even speak.

 The medical examiner’s report would become the foundation of the prosecution’s case. The findings documented extensive injuries consistent with prolonged abuse. The examiner noted that he could not determine a single cause of death because there were multiple injuries, any one of which could have been fatal. The evidence indicated the abuse had occurred over an extended period before death.

 Court testimony would later establish this period as approximately 30 hours. That is not speculation. That is what the medical evidence proved at trial. The details of those findings were presented to the jury. They do not need to be repeated here. What matters is what the jury concluded. This was not an accident.

 This was not a moment of rage. This was sustained deliberate violence against a helpless child. Here is something the jury learned that changes everything about this case. Blaine Milm should never have been anywhere near a child. Before he ever met Jessica Carson, before baby Amora was ever born, Blaine Milm was a registered sex offender, he had prior convictions involving minors.

 At the time of Amora’s death, he was on probation for these offenses. His probation order explicitly barred him from any contact with children outside his own family. When he moved from Long View to Rusk County to live with Jessica and Amora, he failed to register as a sex offender. That failure alone was a state jail felony.

 Rusk County authorities did not know a convicted sex offender was living in that trailer with a baby until after that baby was dead. The system had failed. Every warning sign had been there and no one had connected the dots. In the days following Amora’s death, the evidence against Blaine Milm began to pile up. On December 11th, 9 days after the murder, investigators conducted a second search of the trailer.

 They found blood evidence on items in the bedroom. DNA testing confirmed it belonged to the victim. 2 days later, on December 13th, Milam’s sister, Teresa Shea, visited him in jail. That night, she told her aunt something disturbing. She said she needed to get back out to that trailer to get some evidence out from underneath of it.

 The aunt immediately called Sergeant Amber Rogers. Rogers obtained a search warrant and crawled under the trailer herself. There, shoved through a hole in the bathroom floor, she found a tool inside a clear plastic bag. Forensic analysis connected that tool directly to the crime. Blaine Malam had tried to hide evidence, and he had used his own sister to do it.

 In January 2009, about a month after his arrest, something happened inside the Rusk County Jail that would become the centerpiece of the prosecution’s case. Shirley Broyals was a nurse at the jail. One day, Blaine Milm called for her. When she reached his cell, she found him crying. He handed her a written request to speak with Sergeant Rogers, and then he spoke the words that prosecutors would later call a perfect gold standard confession.

 He said, “I’m going to confess. I did it.” But Miss Shirley, the Blaine, you know, did not do this. My dad told me to be a man, and I’ve been reading my Bible. Please tell Jessica I love her. There it was. In his own words, I did it. The defense would later argue this confession was coerced, that Milm was too intellectually impaired to understand what he was saying.

 But the jury heard those words and they believed them. To understand the defense’s argument, you need to understand who Blaine Milm was before he became a killer. He was the youngest of four children in a family that struggled. His father became ill and unable to work in 2004. His mother took on extra jobs to make ends meet. Blaine was pulled out of public school in the fourth grade, supposedly to be homeschooled.

 In reality, he received almost no education at all. His sister testified that his writing was terrible and he could only read if the letters were big. When psychologists later tested Milam, his IQ scores came back at 68 and 71, both near the threshold many experts consider indicative of intellectual disability. A forensic psychologist who interviewed Milam for nearly 10 hours concluded he suffered from mental deficiency, methamphetamine dependence, and drug induced psychosis.

On the day of the murder, toxicology showed Milm had 10 times the therapeutic dose of methamphetamine in his system. The defense argued that Blaine Milm was not a monster. He was a profoundly impaired young man who had spiraled into drug addiction and delusion. The prosecution saw it differently. To prosecutors, the intellectual disability argument was an excuse, not an explanation.

 They pointed out that despite his supposed impairments, Blaine Milm had held jobs. He worked at an oil change shop at 15 and kept that job for 2 years. He later worked at a tire shop doing diagnostic and mechanical work. They pointed out that after the murder, he had the presence of mind to hide evidence and to create multiple cover stories.

 They pointed out that he had manipulated his own sister into trying to retrieve that hidden evidence. and they pointed out his confession. I did it. Those three words were not the words of a man who did not understand what he had done. The prosecution’s theory was straightforward. Blaine Milm was a predator who had found a vulnerable young mother and her helpless child.

Whatever delusions he may have claimed about demons, the violence he inflicted was deliberate. This was not an exorcism gone wrong. This was murder. Blaine Milum’s trial was moved from Rusk County to Montgomery County about 140 mi south because of extensive pre-trial publicity.

 Too many people in East Texas already knew what he had done. The trial began in January 2010 and lasted several weeks. The jury heard testimony from medical experts. They heard forensic evidence connecting Milam to the crime. They heard his confession read aloud. They also heard from defense experts who argued he was intellectually disabled, that he was in the grip of psychosis, that he genuinely believed he was performing an exorcism.

The defense asked for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. The jury deliberated for less than 1 hour. They found Blaine Keith Milm guilty of capital murder. During the sentencing phase, they heard additional evidence about his prior offenses, about his failure to register, about the probation order he had violated simply by being in that trailer.

 They sentenced him to death. At the time of his sentencing, Blaine Milm was the youngest person on death row in the entire country. Jessica Carson was tried separately in April 2011. The question at her trial was not whether she had inflicted the fatal injuries. The evidence suggested she had not committed most of the abuse herself.

The question was whether she was guilty under Texas law as a party to the crime. Under Texas’s law of parties, anyone who promotes, assists, or fails to prevent a crime can be held equally responsible. Jessica Carson had been in that trailer while her daughter suffered. She had not called for help.

 She had not tried to stop it. According to testimony, she had been present throughout. The prosecution argued that the exorcism had actually been Jessica’s idea, not Blaine’s. They pointed to her interview with Texas Ranger Kenny Ray, in which she provided details about the demon named Martha. The defense argued that Jessica was a victim herself.

 She suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and battered woman syndrome. She had been manipulated by a controlling partner. The jury rejected the defense arguments. After less than two hours of deliberation, they found Jessica Carson guilty of capital murder. Because prosecutors had not sought the death penalty in her case, she was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

 She remains incarcerated today. After his conviction, Blaine Milam spent nearly 17 years on death row at the Palunksky unit in Livingston, Texas. During those years, his case became a battleground over two legal issues, intellectual disability and forensic science. In 2002, the US Supreme Court had ruled that executing intellectually disabled individuals violates the ETH amendment.

Milam’s attorneys argued repeatedly that his IQ scores placed him below the threshold. The courts disagreed. Multiple experts evaluated Milam over the years. When forced to stop using methamphetamine in prison, his cognitive scores actually improved. The second argument concerned forensic evidence presented at trial.

 Defense attorneys argued that certain forensic methods used in the case had since been scientifically questioned. The courts acknowledged the controversy, but found that even without that evidence, there was overwhelming proof of Milam’s guilt. the confession, the hidden evidence, the DNA, the testimony of Jessica Carson herself.

 Milm was scheduled for execution three times. The first date in January 2019 was stayed one day before he was to die so courts could reconsider the intellectual disability claims. The second date in January 2021 was also stayed when the state’s own expert changed his opinion about Milam’s mental capacity.

 But by 2025, all appeals had been exhausted. The third date was set for September 25th. In the weeks before his execution, Milam’s attorneys made one last desperate attempt. They filed a petition with the US Supreme Court arguing that his conviction rested on unreliable forensic evidence. They argued that Mumm was actually innocent, that Jessica Carson had been the true perpetrator.

 On September 22nd, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Milm’s final motion. On the morning of September 25th, the US Supreme Court denied his petition. That same day, the Texas Board of Pardons and Parrolles voted unanimously to deny clemency. There would be no more stays. On the afternoon of September 25th, Blaine Milum was transferred to the Huntsville unit for execution.

 [clears throat] Prison officials reported he appeared anxious and complained of a headache. For his last meal, he requested a cheeseburger, potatoes, green beans, pinto beans, scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits, and tea. It was a comfort meal, the kind of food that might remind someone of home. He ate it knowing he had only hours to live. At 6:19 p.m.

, Blaine Mumm was strapped to the gurnie. IV lines were inserted into his right hand and left arm. Among the witnesses was Michael Jamerson, the Rusk County District Attorney who had prosecuted the case 17 years earlier. When asked for his final statement, Milum spoke. He thanked his supporters for showing him kindness, compassion, and love.

 He thanked the prison chapy. He said he had found Jesus Christ. Then he issued a plea to everyone watching. If any of you would like to see me again, I implore all of you to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and we will meet again. I love you all. Bring me home, Jesus. He did not mention Amora.

 He did not apologize. The lethal dose of pentobarbatital began to flow. Milam grunted once. He gasped. Then he began snoring quietly. After about 2 minutes, all movement stopped. At 6:40 p.m., Blaine Keith Milum was pronounced dead. After the execution, District Attorney Michael Jimmerson addressed the media 17 years ago.

 He said, “A convicted sex offender excluded himself from humanity. An army of lawyers has come full circle, asserting strategies originally rejected at trial.” Meanwhile, Amora’s unspoken plea for justice has reached a crescendo that endless appeals no longer silence. For those who had prosecuted this case, the execution was justice finally delivered.

 For those who opposed the death penalty, it was a tragedy compounded. A man with documented intellectual limitations, failed by every system meant to help him, had been executed by the state. The truth lies somewhere in the middle. Blaine Milum was a product of poverty, neglect, inadequate education, and untreated mental illness.

 He was a young man who cried when his father died and tried to contact him through a Ouija board. But he was also a registered sex offender who violated his probation to be near a child. He was a man who confessed to killing a baby. Jessica Carson will spend the rest of her life in prison. Blaine [clears throat] Milum is dead. But Amora is still gone.

 She has been gone for 17 years. She never learned to walk. She never went to school. She never grew up. Her name meant love. She was named for love. And she died at the hands of the people who should have loved her most. There are no winners in this story. There is only a baby who never got to live.

 A mother who will die in prison. And a man who met his end on a gurnie in Huntsville, Texas. Has justice been served? That depends on what you believe justice means. If justice means accountability, then yes. Both perpetrators were held responsible. If justice means prevention, then no. Every warning sign was there. A registered sex offender, a probation violation, a vulnerable young mother, a helpless child, and no one connected the dots until it was too late.

 If justice means restoration, it can never be achieved. Nothing can bring Amora back. All we can do is remember her name, Amora. If this case moved you, consider subscribing to True Crime Matter for more stories of justice, tragedy, and the cases that stay with us. Hit that notification bell so you never miss an upload. Until next time.