Texas inmate set for execution for killing man in $8 robbery
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - A Texas inmate set to die Tuesday for killing another man in a Houston robbery that yielded just $8 has not had any late appeals filed on his behalf.
Juan Martin Garcia was convicted of capital murder for the September 1998 killing and robbery of Hugo Solano, a Christian missionary from Mexico who had moved his family to Texas just weeks earlier so his children could be educated in the U.S.
Garcia acknowledges shooting Solano but denies the robbery, an accompanying felony that made it a capital case. The inmate, who was linked to at least eight aggravated robberies and two attempted murders in the weeks before and after Solano's death, also insists that jurors unfairly penalized him because he didn't take the witness stand in his own defense at trial.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Garcia's case in March. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, in a 5-2 vote, refused a clemency request from Garcia last week.
"If it's God's will, it's his will," Garcia, 35, told The Associated Press last month in a prison interview near Livingston.
His lethal injection in Huntsville would be the 11th this year in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state. Three more executions are scheduled in upcoming weeks.
Evidence at Garcia's 2000 trial and testimony from a companion identified him as the ringleader of four men involved in the shooting and robbery. The slaying and string of other violent crimes tied to Garcia, who was 18 at the time, convinced a jury he should be put to death.
Garcia, his two cousins and another man had already carried out a carjacking when they spotted Solano early on Sept. 17, 1998, getting into his van to go to work. Solano's relatives said the 36-year-old, who did Christian missionary work in Guadalajara, Mexico, had moved with his wife to Houston weeks earlier so their children could get an education in the U.S.
Eleazar Mendoza, who was sentenced to 55 years in prison for aggravated robbery, testified that Garcia approached Solano and pointed a gun. Mendoza said Garcia ordered Solano to surrender his money then shot him when he refused.
Garcia said Mendoza came up with the idea to rob Solano and that Solano escalated the confrontation by resisting.
"He punches me," Garcia told the AP from a visiting cage outside death row. "First thing that came through my mind is that the dude is going to try to kill me. He grabbed the gun with both of his hands and it discharged."
Solano was shot four times in the head and neck.
Garcia was arrested more than a week later when he dropped a gun while getting out of a car that police had pulled over for a broken headlight. He was released but arrested again when the gun was matched to Solano's slaying.
Another defendant, Raymond McBen, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for aggravated robbery and paroled a year ago. The fourth man charged, Gabriel Morales, was given a life sentence for capital murder.
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This story has been corrected to show the first name of the murder victim was Hugo, not Hugh.