Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 15

Thread: Ignacio Gomez - Texas

  1. #1
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534

    Ignacio Gomez - Texas




    Summary of Offense:

    On November 23, 1996, in El Paso, Gomez fatally shot an 18-year-old man, Toby Hatheway, Jr., and two 16-year-old twin brothers, Michael and Matthew Meredith, with a .357-caliber pistol. Gomez observed the three walking down the road near his mother's residence. Gomez thought they were the ones who had broken into his mother's residence. He and three co-defendants got into a fight with the boys and Gomez shot the three repeatedly in the head, then buried them in sand dunes in the desert.

    Gomez was sentenced to death in El Paso County in December 1998.

  2. #2
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534
    Gomez is a Mexican national and an opinion had been held up since 2004 until the Medellin case was decided. However, on May 27, 2008, the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a Certificate of Appealabilty for Gomez.

    Opinion is here:

    http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions...47-CV1.wpd.pdf

  3. #3
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534
    May 28, 2008

    HOUSTON — A Mexican national convicted of gunning down three El Paso teenagers has lost a federal court appeal, moving him a step closer to execution.

    The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to allow Ignacio Gomez to move forward with additional appeals for the 1996 murders of 16-year-old twin brothers Michael and Matthew Meredith and 19-year-old Toby Hatheway Jr. The three were shot in an apparent retaliation for some broken windows at the home of Gomez's mother. Their bodies were buried in a shallow grave in the desert.

    Gomez, 38, argued he was unconstitutionally deprived of his rights under an international treaty. At the time of the slayings, court documents show he was in the United States legally and living in El Paso with relatives.

    His attorneys argued unsuccessfully even before his capital murder trial that police who arrested him should have told him of his right to legal assistance from the Mexican consulate, and that police who took his confession knew he was a resident alien but didn't advise him of his Vienna Convention rights.

    The New Orleans-based 5th Circuit withheld ruling on Gomez's request for what's known as a certificate of appealability until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in another Texas case with similar international treaty issues. The justices in March rejected that appeal, affecting Gomez and more than a dozen other Mexican nationals on Texas death row.

    The 5th Circuit ruling, posted late Tuesday, specifically dealt with Gomez's case.

    Gomez also argued potential jurors were excluded improperly from his trial jury and that jurors should have been told a life sentence would have meant 40 years in prison before he could be eligible for parole. The 5th Circuit rejected those claims as well.

    Testimony at Gomez's trial showed the three victims were walking along a dirt road when they were approached by Gomez and several companions riding in an SUV.

    After a fight broke out, Gomez pulled a handgun and opened fire, hitting one of the victims in the head. He continued to fire, striking the second victim. After reloading, a fleeing third victim was tracked down and shot in the head, then all three were driven away and buried.

    Gomez's companions turned themselves in and confessed. Their information led authorities to Gomez, who also confessed and told detectives where they could find the murder weapon, according to court documents. In his confession, he told how he made "the last guy ... sit next to his friends" and then shot him in the head and "shot him some more." Gomez said he "just went out of control" because his mother had been frightened after the windows at her home were broken.

    Gomez, who was about a week short of his 27th birthday at the time of the shootings, had no previous prison record. But prosecutors at his trial showed he had at least three convictions for driving while intoxicated, had been arrested for unlawfully carrying a weapon and once tried to run down someone with a truck.

    (Source: The Houston Chronicle)

  4. #4
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534
    On December 1, 2008, Gomez was denied certiorari by the US Supreme Court.

  5. #5
    Whosewho
    Guest
    Ignacio Gomez has been denied cert for quite sometime now and we still haven't given him a date. Now, its been sometime since I've seen anything posted on him good or bad. Texas needs to draw a line on how long an inmate can stay on death row eating up taxpayers' money.

  6. #6
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    I agree. Florida's list is becoming just as long.

  7. #7
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mastro Titta's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2018
    Location
    Prato, Italy
    Posts
    1,275
    This guy has been denied cert from SCOTUS ten years ago, and still no execution date. What happens in El Paso?

  8. #8
    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    Detroit MI
    Posts
    965
    I read somewhere that el paso county's district attorney will not set a date for this guy. I'm guessing they think he is mentally ill or retarded.

  9. #9
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    4,795
    It's been almost 11 years since this guy ran out of appeals. Hall got a date and he got booted through every court. Does anybody have anything solid on what the holdup is here? If he is crazy he would be in Jester but I can't find anything about him being there.
    "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

  10. #10
    Senior Member CnCP Addict one_two_bomb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Location
    Detroit MI
    Posts
    965
    The DA just refuses to ask for a date

Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •