Death row inmate who strangled five-year-old lady executed in Texas

A dying row inmate convicted of strangling a five-year outdated lady after which burning her physique after he kidnapped her from the toy aisle of a Texas Walmart – greater than twenty years ago- was executed on Thursday night.

David Santiago Renteria, 53, was put to dying by deadly injection on the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, for the heinous killing of Alexandra Flores who was brutally murdered November 2001. 

Witnesses together with Flores’ relations entered the dying chamber and watched by way of a window Renteria’s remaining moments. He was pronounced lifeless at 7.11pm CST.

Before the execution, Renteria prayed, sang and requested for forgiveness.

‘I’m sorry for all of the wrongs I’ve finished. And for individuals who have referred to as for my dying, who’re about to homicide me, I forgive you,’ he stated.

Flores was out Christmas procuring together with her household on the Walmart retailer in El Paso when she was lured away by Renteria. The little lady’s physique was discovered the following day in an alley 16 miles from the shop, prosecutors stated.

On Thursday evening within the room often called the ‘dying chamber,’ the kid killer stood subsequent to a non secular adviser as he prayed and chanted hymns in each Spanish and English. 

Looking on the victims relations, he stated: ‘There is just not a day that goes by that I don’t take into consideration the fateful occasions of that day and what transpired.

‘There aren’t any phrases to explain what you are going by way of, and I perceive that.’

Renteria’s sister and a buddy, who had been additionally current watched by way of one other window, as he advised them he was ‘good… sturdy,’ earlier than saying his remaining goodbyes.

‘I like you all, I really do. I’ll see you within the subsequent life,’ he stated.

After he was injected with a deadly dose of the highly effective sedative pentobarbital, Renteria started reciting The Lord’s Prayer. The drug took about 11 minutes to enter impact.

‘Our father, who artwork in heaven,’ Renteria stated earlier than he paused and stated what can be his remaining phrases: ‘I style it.’ 

After two loud breaths and a snore, his physique went limp. At 7.11pm Central Standard Time, he was pronounced deceased.

Family members of the slain teenager who witnessed the harrowing occasion as their sibling’s assassin was put to dying had been emotional.

Holding a photograph collage of Flores, the youngest of eight kids, siblings Ignacio and Sandra Frausto stated by way of tears that they wish to hold their child sister’s reminiscence alive.

‘I wish to acknowledge her, not overlook about her,’ Ignacio Frausto stated. ‘It took 22 years however the time got here. It is completed. We can lastly and actually start to heal – 22 years of questioning what was going to occur.’

Renteria’s execution proceeded after the U.S. Supreme Court declined two separate protection requests for a keep earlier within the day.

One request stemmed from efforts by Renteria’s attorneys to realize entry to proof they stated may have proven he was not accountable for her dying. 

Another attraction rejected by the excessive court docket with out remark late Thursday centered on claims the state’s provide of pentobarbital, the execution drug, had degraded and would trigger him ‘terror’ and ‘extreme ache’ in violation of the Eight Amendment’s ban on merciless and strange punishment.

Authorities stated proof confirmed Renteria, a convicted intercourse offender, carried out the kidnapping and killing alone and that his legal professionals didn’t increase that protection at his trial. 

Blood present in Renteria´s van matched the slain lady´s DNA, in line with prosecutors, who added that his palm print was discovered on a plastic bag put over the lady’s head earlier than her physique was set on fireplace.

Renteria was accused of patrolling the shop for about 40 minutes earlier than zeroing in on the 5-year-old lady. Grainy surveillance video confirmed her following Renteria out of the shop.

Renteria was convicted on a capital homicide cost and was sentenced to dying in September of 2003.

Throughout his trial, he argued {that a} gang had ordered him to kidnap and homicide the kid.

On a number of events, Renteria has appealed his sentence. Each time, the capital homicide sentence has been upheld.

Speaking with native El Paso information station KFOX14, Carlos Leon – who was the police chief on the time of the homicide – remembered the devastating case, saying:

‘I feel that in my 5 years as chief that was considered one of, I feel one of many deepest cuts that we had in El Paso, as a result of your entire neighborhood was very distraught about what had simply occurred,’ he stated.

‘I want I had a button the place I’d delete a sure reminiscence. And that certain would have been considered one of them. 

‘I promised the mother that we might discover the killer and the rationale I did that was as a result of I had a lot confidence within the nice detectives we had.’

In August, state District Judge Monique Reyes in El Paso granted a request to remain the execution and ordered prosecutors to show over their recordsdata within the case. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later overturned Reyes´ orders.

In 2006, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals threw out Renteria´s dying sentence, saying prosecutors supplied deceptive proof that gave jurors the impression Renteria was not remorseful.

During a brand new resentencing trial in 2008, Renteria was once more sentenced to dying.

The execution was considered one of two carried out Thursday within the United States. Renteria was the eighth inmate in Texas put to dying this yr.

In Alabama, inmate Casey McWhorter acquired a deadly injection Thursday night for a homicide conviction within the deadly capturing of a person throughout a 1993 theft.

There have been 23 executions within the U.S. this yr, together with the 2 carried out on Thursday.