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Thread: Hector Acosta-Ojeda - Texas Death Row

  1. #1
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Hector Acosta-Ojeda - Texas Death Row


    Erick "Diablo" Zelaya and Iris Chirinos





    Jury selection underway in Texas murder trial of man accused in severed-head case

    By Domingo Ramirez Jr.
    The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

    Erick “Diablo” Zelaya’s severed head was found on Sept. 2, 2017, near a man-made walking trail not far from AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

    Near the head, Arlington police found a sign written in Spanish that read,”La Raza Se Resreta y Faltan 4” which loosely translated, appears to mean, “The race, or group, must be respected and there’s only four left.”

    Zelaya’s body and the body of his 17-year-old girlfriend, Iris Chirinos, were later found in shallow graves behind a house in the 200 block of Burton Drive in Arlington. Both had been shot multiple times.

    Hector “El Cholo” Acosta-Ojeda, 30, of Arlington was arrested and charged in those deaths as well as the robbery and killing of Triston Ray Algiene in July 2017.

    Jury selection was underway Monday in his capital murder trial in Criminal District Court No. 396 in Tarrant County.

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Acosta.

    He and another man, Felipe Eduardo Ortiz, are charged with in Algiene's murder. Algiene’s body — cut in half and concealed under a repair patch in a home’s foundation — was found Oct. 3, 2017, inside a vacant home in the 6400 block of Woodway Drive in southwest Fort Worth.

    That Fort Worth capital murder case again Acosta is pending.

    Testimony in the Arlington capital murder case is scheduled to begin next month.

    The gruesome Arlington case began with the discovery of Zelaya’s severed head.

    That same day, Mariano Sanchez-Pina was arrested on an unrelated warrant and later gave homicide detectives information about the severed head they’d found.

    Sanchez-Pina told investigators that a man he knew only as “Diablo” had been murdered and buried behind a home on Burton Drive in Arlington

    Arlington police executed a search warrant at the Burton house Sept. 3, 2017, and they found a machete, possible blood evidence and an area of ground recently disturbed in the back yard.

    A subsequent search of the back yard by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office uncovered a human leg and foot believed to be Zelaya’s. Through additional excavation, officials eventually found the remainder of Zelaya’s body and that of Chirinos.

    Chirinos’ body remained intact, Arlington police said.

    Sanchez-Pina asked to speak to Arlington Police Department homicide Detective Grant Gildon again on Sept. 3, 2017, and told the investigator that he witnessed Acosta attack Zelaya, according to an affidavit. Previously,
    Sanchez-Pina had told Gildon that he had arrived at the house on Burton to find Zelaya already dead.

    Arlington police believe the slayings were motivated by a dispute over money and drugs, and a machete was used.

    In September 2017, Arlington investigators had found no indications that Chirinos was involved in the dispute, but said she may have just been at the house with her boyfriend at the wrong time.

    Sanchez-Pina, 20, of Arlington, who remained in the Tarrant County Jail on Monday, has been charged with tampering with physical evidence. His trial is pending.

    https://www.star-telegram.com/news/l...235144007.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  2. #2
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    Prosecutor: North Texas Man Shot, Beheaded Roommate

    By CBS & AP

    FORT WORTH, Texas (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — A prosecutor says a North Texas man killed and beheaded his roommate and fatally shot the roommate’s 17-year-old girlfriend as she tried to run away two years ago.

    Hector Acosta-Ojeda’s capital murder trial for the 2017 killings of Erick Zelaya and Iris Chirinos began Tuesday in Fort Worth.

    The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Tarrant County Prosecutor Kevin Rousseau said Acosta-Ojeda shot Zelaya twice in the head while he slept.

    During the execution of a search warrant, the remains of both Zelaya and Chirinos were found in the backyard of the Burton Drive home.

    Zelaya’s severed head was later found on a trail near AT&T Stadium in Arlington, as well as a note written in Spanish about being disloyal.

    Rousseau told the jury that Acosta-Ojeda confessed to the killings, which followed Zelaya saying he shot into an Arlington home Acosta-Ojeda was living in months earlier.

    Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the 30-year-old.

    https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2019/10/29/...aded-roommate/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #3
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    Jury Convicts Texas Man in Shooting, Beheading of Roommate

    By The Associated Press
    The New York Times

    FORT WORTH, Texas — A jury has found a North Texas man guilty of capital murder in the fatal shooting and beheading of his roommate and fatal shooting of the roommate's 17-year-old girlfriend as she tried to flee.

    The Tarrant County jury deliberated for more than five hours in Fort Worth before finding Hector Acosta-Ojeda guilty of capital murder in the September 2017 killings of Erick Zelaya and Iris Chirinos. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty when testimony begins Wednesday on sentencing. If a jury can't agree on death, Acosta-Ojeda would receive a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole.

    Prosecutors say Acosta-Ojeda shot Zelaya twice in the head while he slept and left his severed head on a trail near AT&T Stadium in Arlington after Zelaya admitted shooting at Acosta-Ojeda's former home.

    https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/201...ead-trial.html

  4. #4
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    Jury Convicts Self-Proclaimed Cartel Hitman Who Killed, Mutilated Roommate and His Girlfriend

    Man suspected of killing another man, cutting him in half and burying him under a Fort Worth house

    By nbcdfw.com

    A North Texas man described as "extraordinarily violent" and one who "deals in terror" has been sentenced to death for fatally shooting and mutilating the bodies of his roommate and his girlfriend.

    The Tarrant County jurors, who deliberated for more than five hours last week before finding Hector Acosta-Ojeda guilty of capital murder in the September 2017 killings of Erick Zelaya and his 17-year-old girlfriend Iris Chirinos, took another four hours Wednesday to decide to sentence him to death.

    "Some people can get better. Some are just bad," prosecutor Tim Rodgers said of Acosta in a statement Wednesday.

    Acosta and Zelaya were roommates, though he claimed to have killed the couple as retaliation for a past drive-by in which he believed Zelaya was a participant.

    Prosecutors said Acosta shot Zelaya and Chirinos in their sleep and mutilated their bodies with a machete and a 2x4 before decapitating him and leaving both bodies in a shallow grave. Zelaya's head was left blocks away near a sign warning of future violence.

    "Have you ever knowingly in your life sat in the room with a more dangerous person?" lead prosecutor Kevin Rousseau asked the jury Wednesday during closing arguments for the punishment phase of the trial. "He is extraordinarily violent. He deals in terror.

    It's his job."

    Prosecutors said Acosta was a self-proclaimed sicario (hitman) for the Cartel del Noreste and he is believed to have killed at least one other person, Triston Algiene, whose body was found cut in half and buried under a house in Fort Worth.

    Rodgers said Acosta was "not a product of a bad environment. He is the bad element in his environment. That's what he is and what he wants to be."

    Prosecutors said Acosta entered gang life in Monterrey, Mexico as a child and later participated in gangs in Mexico and Houston before joining the Cartel del Noreste. Prosecutors said Acosta claimed to have committed kidnappings, tortures and other murders and that while awaiting trial he tried to start a drug trafficking operation in jail.

    Acosta, who is being sent to death row, will be turned over to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and will be transferred to the Polunsky Unit in West Livingston where he will be held until he is executed in Huntsville.

    https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Ju...564884382.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #5
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Acosta-Ojeda entered Texas' death row on 11/15/19.

    https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row...ers_on_dr.html
    "How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog

    "When we get fruit, we get the juice and water. I ferment for a week! It tastes like chalk, it's nasty" - Blaine Keith Milam #999558 Texas Death Row

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    Direct appeal scheduled for oral arguments October 5, 2022.

    https://www.txcourts.gov/media/1454785/10-5-22.pdf
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    Oral arguments in Acosta’s direct appeal scheduled for 12/6/23.

    https://www.txcourts.gov/media/1457507/12-6-23.pdf
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

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