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Thread: Gustavo Julian Garcia - Texas Execution - February 16, 2016

  1. #11
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    March 22, 1999

    Death row inmate recalls escape attempt

    HUNTSVILLE (AP) - For Gustavo Garcia, the worst part about failing to complete his escape from Texas' death row was learning one of his partners died after becoming the first to break out since the Bonnie and Clyde era.

    "I was hoping he'd gotten away," Garcia said of fellow convict Martin Gurule. "It would have made everything worthwhile for me."

    Garcia, 26, and Gurule, 29, were among seven condemned murderers who slipped away from death row Thanksgiving night by cutting through a recreation yard fence with a hacksaw blade. Then they climbed to a roof and crawled the length of the Ellis Unit prison before scrambling to the ground.

    They raced across a grassy area and over the first of two 10-foot chain-link fences topped with razor wire before guards in nearby towers spotted them and opened fire.

    Gurule was the only one to scale the second fence and disappear into the foggy night.

    Gurule drowned shortly after the escape. His body was found Dec. 3 by a pair of off-duty prison employees fishing in a 15-foot-deep creek a couple of miles from the prison.

    The discovery ended the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's intense hunt for the first inmate to escape from Texas death row since a Bonnie and Clyde gang member broke out in 1934.

    "I don't regret trying to escape," Garcia told The Associated Press in an interview that marked the first time any of the six surviving escapees has spoken publicly about the break. "It was worth the try. At least I can say I tried."

    Garcia was set to die March 31 for the 1990 shotgun slaying of a Plano beverage store worker during a robbery. On Friday, that date was set aside.

    Asked to compare the escape with the prospect of lethal injection, Garcia replied: "Facing execution is scarier."

    He declined to get into specifics of the getaway planning, saying only that it had been discussed for some time and that they decided to take advantage of what they perceived as lax security.

    "I was surprised at how easy it was," he said.

    "Just run," he said of the death row inmates' strategy. "I know a lot of people thought there was this big old conspiracy, officers helping, outside help. It was nothing like that."

    Asked if he would try to escape again, Garcia responded: "No. I think once is enough."

    http://amarillo.com/stories/1999/03/...l#.VrvjtsvSmUk
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  2. #12
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Here is a quick summary of the crime

    The evidence at trial established that on December 9, 1990, appellant and his co-defendant, Christopher Vargas, entered a liquor store in Plano. Appellant was armed with a single shot, twenty gauge, sawed-off shotgun and carried extra ammunition. Appellant ordered the store clerk to retrieve the money from the cash register while Vargas took beer to their car.

    Appellant ordered the clerk into a small room and on his knees. Appellant then shot the clerk in the abdomen. The clerk managed to get to his feet, threw a chair at appellant and escaped, running around the building and over a fence. Appellant reloaded, pursued the clerk, and shot him in the back of the head. By the time authorities arrived at the scene, appellant and Vargas had departed. The clerk later died from his shotgun wounds.

    Approximately one month later, appellant, his common law wife, and Vargas parked at the gas pumps of a convenience store in Plano. While appellant's wife pumped gas, appellant and Vargas entered the store with the same shotgun used at the liquor store. The clerk, who was talking on the telephone with his girlfriend, asked her to call the police. The clerk was taken to a back room, placed on his knees and shot in the back of the head. While appellant contends Vargas shot the clerk, the State presented fingerprint evidence which indicated Vargas again carried beer to the car while appellant shot the clerk. Appellant and Vargas were arrested at the convenience store.


    Also here is his written confession. So people don't cry innocent with this guy.

    Det. Wilson is writing my statement. Approx. 3-4 weeks from today's date, Chris Vargas & I robbed a liquor store & I killed the clerk. The liquor store was behind a 7-11 store at Plano Pkwy. & Ave. K. I was driving Sheila's Chev. Monza. We waited in the liquor store parking lot until the customers all left. Both Chris & I pulled a 20 ga. sawed-off shotgun on the clerk. I had the clerk give me the money out of the cash register & it was about $500. Chris was grabbing up beer. Chris went outside to pull the car up to the front door. I had the clerk go into a little room next to the cash register & I had him get on his knees. A customer, a white woman walked in the store & saw me & she walked back out. I then panicked and I shot the clerk with the shotgun. The clerk started coming at me & threw a chair at me and then he ran outside. I loaded the shotgun & shot the clerk again outside the store. The clerk had jumped over the fence & was in some grass when I shot him the 2nd time. I then ran to the car & we drove off. I told Sheila my commonlaw wife about the robbery after we did it. End—G.G.

    https://www.courtlistener.com/opinio...arcia-v-state/


    Also here is coverage of the crime and trial.

    http://www.dallasnews.com/news/commu...pe-attempt.ece
    Last edited by Mike; 02-10-2016 at 09:00 PM.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  3. #13
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Death Watch: Double Death Penalty

    Garcia, convicted of capital murder, contends that his confessions were improperly admitted as evidence

    In Jan. 1991, 19-year-old Gustavo Garcia, his wife, and a third accomplice, 15-year-old Christopher Vargas, stepped into a Plano convenience store for a robbery and ultimately shot and killed the store clerk, 18-year-old Gregory Martin, while he was on the phone with his pregnant girlfriend. The girlfriend, who heard the shotgun blast, called police, who arrived on the scene to find Garcia's wife, Sheila Maria Garcia, outside by a gas pump. Garcia was hiding inside one of the store's coolers.

    During interrogations, police were able to link Garcia to the December slaying of 43-year-old Plano liquor store clerk Craig Turski. Garcia confessed to that murder via written statement: "I killed the clerk with the shotgun," he wrote. He was charged with capital murder for both slayings but only tried in Turski's death. Vargas was convicted of capital murder in Martin's death and sentenced to life in prison.

    Garcia went to trial in Dec. 1991. On Dec. 19, he was handed the death penalty. A Dec. 1994 decision from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the decision, however, noting that Garcia's written confession did not include the necessary language indicating that Garcia "knowing[ly], intelligent[ly], and voluntar[il]y" waived his right to remain silent during interrogations. The sentence was later reinstated during a follow-up hearing.

    In late Nov. 1998, Garcia was one of seven inmates in Huntsville's Ellis Unit who took part in an elaborate attempt to escape the prison. One succeeded, though he drowned in a lake shortly after jumping the prison wall. Garcia and five others surrendered while still on the Huntsville grounds.

    In June 2000, Garcia was granted a new sentencing hearing (along with five others) after the Texas Attor*ney General learned that former Texas Department of Criminal Justice Chief Psychologist Dr. Walter Quijano testified that Garcia could be a continued threat to society if he was given a life sentence simply because he was Hispanic. But Garcia was handed another death sentence in March of 2001.

    On Jan. 19, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Garcia's case without comment. Through his attorneys, Garcia, now 42, continues to contend that his confessions were improperly admitted as evidence, and that he did not receive adequate counseling during his trial. With his execution scheduled for Feb. 16, Garcia stands to be the third Texan executed this year, and the 534th since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

    http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/...death-penalty/

  4. #14
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Updated photo

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    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  5. #15
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Plano man set for execution

    Supreme Court refuses to hear Garcia’s latest appeal

    A Plano man is set to be executed Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear his latest – and likely final – appeal.

    In December 1990, then-19-year-old Gustavo Garcia shot and killed store clerk Craig Turski, according to police. He confessed to the crime after being arrested in connection to the murder of another store clerk the following month.

    Police found Garcia hiding inside a store cooler after his friend, Christopher Vargas, 15, shot and killed Gregory Marin, 18. Garcia was charged in that case but never tried.

    http://starlocalmedia.com/planocouri...2aacfb6d9.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

  6. #16
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    Texas inmate set to die Tuesday for Dallas-area store holdup

    HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A suburban Dallas convenience store clerk was on the phone with his girlfriend when two people, one of them carrying a sawed-off shotgun, walked in. Gregory Martin told her he believed he was about to be robbed and to call police.

    Plano officers found 15-year-old Christopher Vargas standing over Martin's lifeless body and 18-year-old Gustavo Garcia hiding in a beer cooler with the shotgun near him. Authorities later determined the weapon had been used a month earlier in a robbery at a Plano liquor store where the cashier, Craig Turski, was fatally shot.

    Garcia, now 43, is set for lethal injection Tuesday night in Turski's 1990 slaying. He'd be the third prisoner executed this year in Texas, which puts more inmates to death than any other state.

    A federal judge said Friday he won't stop the execution, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles refused a clemency petition. No additional appeals are expected, Seth Kretzer, one of Garcia's lawyers, said Monday.

    In the federal court appeal, Garcia's attorneys had argued that lawyers at his trial and in earlier appeals failed to uncover details of an abusive and alcohol- and drug-influenced youth — disclosures that could have convinced jurors to spare him from a death sentence. They also said they needed additional time to investigate those claims.

    "Garcia's guilt is clear," responded Fredericka Sargent, an assistant Texas attorney general.

    The U.S. Supreme Court last month refused to review an appeal that raised questions about deficient legal help, and last week turned down a request for a rehearing.

    Court documents show Garcia, who has spent more than half of his life on death row, shot Turski in the abdomen on Dec. 9, 1990, then reloaded and shot the 43-year-old cashier in the back of the head. A month later, Martin, 18, was shot in the head after he was taken to a back room.

    In a statement to police following his arrest for Martin's killing, Garcia said he'd ordered Turski to his knees when a customer entered the store.

    "I then panicked," he said. "I shot the clerk with the shotgun."

    On Thanksgiving in 1998, Garcia and five other inmates were scaling a pair of 10-foot-high prison fences when corrections officers opened fire on them and they surrendered. A seventh convict, Martin Gurule, was shot but managed to flee, making him the first inmate to escape Texas death row since a Bonnie and Clyde gang member broke out in 1934. Gurule's body was found about a week later in a creek a few miles from the prison, and an autopsy showed he drowned.

    "At least I can say I tried," Garcia said of the escape attempt in a 1999 interview with The Associated Press. "Facing execution is scarier." He declined an interview request as his execution date neared.

    Vargas, Garcia's partner in both fatal robberies, was tried and as an adult, convicted and is serving life in prison. His age made him ineligible for the death penalty.

    At least nine other Texas inmates have execution dates set for the coming months, including three in March.

    http://news.yahoo.com/texas-inmate-s...172225421.html

  7. #17
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    Media Advisory: Gustavo Garcia scheduled for execution


    Friday, February 12, 2016 – Austin, Texas

    Pursuant to a court order by the 366th Judicial District Court of Collin County, Gustavo Garcia is scheduled for execution after 6:00 p.m. on February 16, 2016.

    In 1991, Garcia was convicted and sentenced to death for the capital murder of Craig Turski.

    FACTS OF THE CASE

    As summarized by the Court of Criminal Appeals in its first opinion:

    On December 9, 1990, Garcia and Christopher Vargas entered a liquor store, Beverage Warehouse, in the city of Plano. Garcia was armed with a single shot .20 gauge sawed-off shotgun and had additional shells in his possession. Garcia ordered the clerk, Craig Turski, to give him money from the cash register. At the same time, Vargas took beer from the store and put it in their car. A female customer walked in the store, saw Garcia, and immediately left.

    Garcia shot Craig at close range in the abdomen. Craig fled outside the store, pursued by Garcia. Garcia then reloaded the shotgun and shot Craig in the back of the head. The female customer, Donna Delozier Sawtelle, subsequently returned to the store with her husband. Finding the store deserted, they called the police. Craig was found and was transported to the hospital, where he later died from gunshot wounds.

    On January 5, 1991, at about 12:30 a.m., Vargas, Garcia and Garcia’s girlfriend (Sheila Phanae Loe) stopped at a Texaco station in Plano. While Loe pumped gas, Garcia and Vargas entered the station with the same .20 gauge shotgun used to kill Craig. The clerk, Gregory Martin, was on the phone with his girlfriend. As he saw them enter, he informed her that he thought he was about to be robbed and asked her to call the police. Gregory was taken to a back room and shot at point blank range in the back of the head. He died at the scene.

    Garcia claimed Vargas shot Gregory. Evidence introduced at trial, however, indicated Vargas was carrying beer to their car (as he did in the earlier robbery) while Garcia shot the clerk. In addition, the shotgun was found near the freezer in close proximity to Garcia at the time of his capture. Two firearms experts testified at trial that the shotgun found at the scene of Gregory’s murder was the same weapon used in Craig’s murder. Alerted by Gregory’s girlfriend, the police arrived at the scene to find Garcia, Vargas and Loe still present. Vargas was found, unarmed, standing over Gregory’s body. He claimed to have just entered the store and found Martin lying there. Garcia was found hiding in the freezer area close to where the shotgun was found.

    Garcia was transported to the Plano Police Department. He was read his Miranda warnings repeatedly. He subsequently confessed, both orally and in writing, to the murders of both Craig and Gregory. His confessions were videotaped, and a separate written confession was prepared for each offense.

    *****

    At trial, an acquaintance of Garcia, Bobby Flores, testified he was at Vargas’s house the night of Craig’s murder. Flores testified that Vargas and Garcia left the house and subsequently returned with beer and a lot of money. Flores asked Garcia where he got the beer and money. Garcia in response stated he went into a store, took the beer and money, shot the clerk and left.

    PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

    The Court of Criminal Appeals also summarized the evidence in support of the deliberateness and future dangerousness special issues in its original opinion:

    Garcia was eighteen years of age at the time of the instant offense. The State presented evidence that Garcia committed several burglaries as a juvenile and was a disciplinary problem in school. Evidence was also presented that Garcia created problems while in jail awaiting trial. Although evidence conflicted as to whether or not Garcia was intoxicated at the time of the instant offense, Garcia had a history of alcohol abuse. Both sides presented psychiatric evidence regarding the probability that Garcia would commit criminal acts of violence in the future. As expected, this evidence is conflicting. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Garcia committed another capital murder within a month of his commission of the instant offense.

    During the second punishment trial, the State also presented evidence that Garcia had been involved in an escape attempt from the Ellis Unit in 1998.

    PROCEDURAL HISTORY

    On March 5, 1991, a Collin County jury indicted Garcia for the capital murder of Craig Turski while in the course of committing or attempting to commit robbery.

    On January 8, 1992, having been found guilty of capital murder, Garcia was sentenced to death.

    On March 27, 1996, Garcia’s conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on direct appeal.

    Garcia’s first application for state habeas relief was denied on February 10, 1999, by the Court of Criminal Appeals.

    On September 26, 2000, Garcia’s first petition for federal habeas corpus relief was granted on the basis of Saldaño error. Garcia v. Johnson, No. 1:99cv134 (E.D. Tex. 2000).

    After a second punishment trial, Garcia was again sentenced to death on March 23, 2001.

    On November 12, 2003, Garcia’s sentence was affirmed by the Court of Criminal Appeals on direct appeal.

    Garcia’s second application for state habeas relief was denied on October 15, 2008, by the Court of Criminal Appeals.

    Garcia then filed a second petition for federal habeas relief in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont Division. The federal district court denied Garcia’s petition on November 10, 2014. The Fifth Circuit rejected Garcia’s appeal on July 17, 2015, and affirmed the district court’s denial of habeas relief. A petition for certiorari review filed in the United States Supreme Court was denied on January 19, 2016.

    On August 19, 2015, the 366th Judicial District Court of Collin County scheduled Garcia’s execution for February 16, 2016.

    https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov...-for-execution

  8. #18
    Senior Member CnCP Addict TrudieG's Avatar
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    Sorry I won't be able to chat tonight as I have to work. I will be able to tomorrow night.

  9. #19
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Execution Set for Man Involved in Death Row Escape

    By Jolie McCullough
    The Texas Tribune

    After 24 years on Texas death row, a re-sentencing trial and an unsuccessful escape attempt, Gustavo Julian Garcia, 43, is scheduled for execution Tuesday night.

    Garcia was convicted in the 1990 shooting death of Craig Turski, a liquor store clerk, during a robbery in Plano, according to court documents. He was 18 at the time. It will be the third execution in Texas this year, and the sixth in the United States. Texas executed 13 men in 2015.

    In December 1990, Garcia and 15-year-old Christopher Vargas entered a liquor store with a sawed-off shotgun, according to court documents. They stole money and beer, and Garcia shot Turski in the stomach and head.

    The two weren’t arrested until a month later, when they were caught at a Texaco where another clerk had been shot and killed. Garcia confessed to the murder of Turski and was sentenced to death in January 1992.

    More than six years later, on Thanksgiving night 1998, Garcia took part in an escape attempt that ended with the death of another death row inmate, Martin Gurule, according to the Dallas Morning News. Garcia and five others surrendered on the lawn after guards began shooting at them, but Gurule managed to get over the outer fence. He was found dead a week later, apparently drowned in a nearby creek.

    Eight years into Garcia's death row sentence, then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn discovered that psychologist Walter Quijano, who testified at Garcia’s original sentencing trial, had claimed in testimony that Hispanics were more likely to pose a future danger to society, according to court documents. Quijano said he came to that belief because Hispanics were overrepresented in the prison population.

    Garcia and several other inmates whose death sentences had been influenced by Quijano's improper testimony were granted new sentencing trials, but Garcia was again sentenced to death in 2001, according to the attorney general’s office.

    In August, a Collin County judge set his execution date. His latest appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was denied Feb. 9, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied his request for a stay and new hearing the next day.

    http://www.texastribune.org/2016/02/...th-row-escape/

  10. #20
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Texas Executes Man For 1990 Murder

    Gustavo Garcia was executed in Texas on Tuesday for the 1990 murder of a liquor store clerk during an armed robbery.

    Garcia fatally shot Craig Turski, 43, with a shotgun as he and an accomplice, Christopher Vargas, robbed the Beverage Warehouse in Plano. Garcia, who was 18 at the time of the crime, has spent more than half of his life on death row.

    The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Garcia’s clemency petition, the Associated Press reported. A U.S. district judge on Friday refused to halt Garcia’s execution. His attorneys had argued that Garcia’s execution should be stayed to provide time for new independent counsel to review his case and to determine if there were claims that his former attorneys failed to raise in previous proceedings. The U.S. Supreme Court has also previously rejected Garcia’s appeals.

    There were no further appeals planned for Tuesday, Garcia’s attorney, Seth Kretzer, told BuzzFeed News.

    Garcia, 43, became the third person to be executed by Texas this year.

    On Dec. 9, 1990, Garcia ordered Turski to hand over money from the cash register at the Beverage Warehouse, while Vargas, who was 15 at the time, stole beer and transported it to their vehicle, according to court documents. After Turski handed over around $500, Garcia ordered him to get on his knees in a room next to the cash register, according to Garcia’s written confession. After a customer walked into the store and saw Garcia, he said he “panicked” and shot Turski with a sawed-off shotgun.

    “The clerk started coming at me and threw a chair at me and then he ran outside,” Garcia’s confession said. “I loaded the shotgun and shot the clerk again outside the store. The clerk had jumped over the fence and was in some grass when I shot him the 2nd time.”

    A month later, Garcia, Vargas and Garcia’s girlfriend stopped at a gas station in Plano. Garcia and Vargas entered the station with the same .20 gauge shotgun Garcia used to kill Turski. The store clerk, Gregory Martin, told his girlfriend over the phone to call the police. Martin was taken to a back room and fatally shot at point blank range in the back of his head. The police found Vargas standing over Martin’s body while Garcia was hiding in a freezer close to where the shotgun was lying. Garcia claimed that Vargas shot Martin but the identity of the shooter was never confirmed, court documents showed.

    As a minor, Vargas was ineligible for the death penalty, and was sentenced to life in prison.

    In 1998, Garcia and six other death row inmates attempted to escape the Huntsville prison on Thanksgiving night. While one inmate managed to flee, Garcia, along with the others were caught before they escaped the prison complex.

    Garcia’s death sentence was overturned on appeal in 2000, due to testimony from psychologist Walter Quijano, who the Texas Tribune reported had testified “that Hispanics were more likely to pose a future danger to society.” He was granted a new sentencing trial, but was sentenced to death again in 2001.

    “He was just a callous murderer,” Kevin Turski, the victim’s brother told The Dallas Morning News. “They took the money, and they shot him anyway.”

    http://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnashr...pN#.cyWd9B9WRa
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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