Summary of Offense:
Convicted and sentended to death for the December 2003 murders of Victor Martinez and Guadalupe Zavala, a Peoria couple who had hired him to remodel their house. Prosecutors believe Cota killed Martinez, 73, by beating him on the head with a baseball bat or hammer. Then, they think Cota lay in wait for Zavala, 40, to come home from work. He stabbed her, bound her hands and feet, wrapped her face in duct tape, and struck her repeatedly in the head and face with a machete or meat cleaver, prosecutors said. Cota lived in the house for the next week, according to trial testimony. He forged checks on the couple's bank account and took the title to one of their vehicles, which Cota gave to his son.
Cota was sentenced to death on August 14, 2009.
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