HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas man convicted of fatally strangling and stabbing a young mother more than 20 years ago was executed Wednesday evening as relatives of the victim looked on.
Moises Sandoval Mendoza received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 6:40 p.m., authorities said. He was condemned for the March 2004 killing of 20-year-old Rachelle O’Neil Tolleson.
After a spiritual adviser prayed over him for about two minutes, Mendoza apologized repeatedly to the victim's parents and relatives present, calling to each by name. “I am sorry for having robbed you of Rachelle's life,” he said, addressing the woman's parents, two brothers, a cousin and an uncle who were watching through a window from an adjoining room.
He also said he had robbed Tolleson's daughter of her mother, adding, “I'm sorry for that. I know nothing that I could ever say or do would ever make up for that. I want you to know that I am sincere. I apologize.” The daughter wasn't present for the execution.
He then spoke briefly in Spanish, addressing his wife, his sister and two friends seated and watching through a window from another witness room. “I love you, I am with you, I am well and at peace,” he said in Spanish, his words provided in a transcript in English translation. “You know that I'm well, and everything is love,” he added.
As the injection began, he could be heard making two loud gasps and then began snoring. After about ten snores, all movement stopped and he was pronounced dead 19 minutes later.
Prosecutors say Mendoza, 41, took Tolleson from her north Texas home, leaving her 6-month-old daughter alone. The infant was found cold and wet but safe the next day by Tolleson’s mother. Tolleson’s body was discovered six days later, left in a field near a creek.
Evidence in Mendoza’s case showed he also had burned Tolleson’s body to hide his fingerprints. Dental records were used to identify her, according to investigators.
Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request by Mendoza’s attorneys to stop his execution.
Lower courts had previously rejected his petitions for a stay. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied Mendoza’s request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty.
Mendoza’s attorneys had told the Supreme Court he had been prevented by lower courts from arguing that he had been denied effective assistance of counsel earlier in the appeals process.
But the Texas Attorney General’s Office told the Supreme Court that Mendoza’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel had previously been found by a lower federal court to be “meritless and insubstantial.”
Authorities said that in the days before the killing, Mendoza had attended a party at Tolleson’s home in Farmersville, located about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northeast of Dallas. On the day her body was found, Mendoza told a friend about the killing. The friend called police, and Mendoza was arrested.
Mendoza confessed to police but couldn’t give detectives a reason for the slaying, authorities said. He told investigators he repeatedly choked Tolleson, sexually assaulted her and dragged her body to a field, where he choked her again and then stabbed her in the throat. He later moved her body to a more remote location and burned it.
Mendoza was the third inmate put to death this year in Texas, historically the nation's busiest capital punishment state, and the 13th in the U.S.
On Thursday, Alabama planned to execute James Osgood for the 2010 rape and murder of a woman.
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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
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