Miguel
Paredes, 32, was convicted along with two other men in the September
2000 slayings of three people with ties to the Mexican Mafia. The
victims' bodies were rolled up in a carpet, driven about 50 miles (80
kilometers) southwest, dumped and set on fire. A farmer investigating a
grass fire found the remains.
Paredes
was pronounced dead at 6:54 p.m. CDT, 22 minutes after being injected
with a lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital. The execution was
delayed slightly to ensure the IV lines were functioning properly, said
Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark. The procedure
calls for two working lines.
Normally needles are placed in the
crease of an inmate's arms near the elbows, but in Paredes' case, prison
officials inserted IV lines into his hands.
As
witnesses entered the death chamber in Huntsville, Paredes smiled and
mouthed several kisses to four friends watching through a window and
repeatedly told them he loved them. He told everyone gathered that he
hoped his victims' family members would "let go of all of the hate
because of all my actions."
"I
came in as a lion and I come as peaceful as a lamb," Paredes said. "I'm
at peace. I hope society sees who else they are hurting with this."
As the drugs began taking effect, he took several deep breaths while praying. He started to snore and eventually stopped.
The
execution was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down a
last-day appeal from attorneys who contended Paredes was mentally
impaired and his previous lawyers were deficient for not investigating
his mental history.
His was
the 10th to be executed by lethal injection this year in Texas, the most
active death-penalty state in the U.S. One other Texas inmate is set to
die in December and at least nine are scheduled for execution in early
2015, including four in January.
Prosecutors
said Paredes was the most aggressive shooter when Nelly Bravo and Shawn
Michael Cain, both 23, and Adrian Torres, 27, showed up to collect drug
money at the home of John Anthony Saenz, a leader in Paredes' gang.
Defense
attorneys argued that Paredes, who turned 18 six weeks before the
slayings, grew up in a neighborhood where the only way to survive was to
join a gang.
No friends or
relatives of the three victims attended Paredes' execution. Cain's
family said in a statement afterward that Cain was "no longer with us
for no other reason than being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Our family has waited 14 years for justice to finally be served," the statement said.
Paperwork
carrying Saenz's name was found in the debris with the victims' bodies,
which helped police solve the case. Saenz, 32, claimed self-defense at
his trial and avoided the death penalty when jurors sentenced him to
life. The third man convicted in the killings, Greg Alvarado, 35,
pleaded guilty and also is serving life in prison.
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