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Thread: Michael Wayne Evans - Texas Execution - December 4, 1986

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    Michael Wayne Evans - Texas Execution - December 4, 1986




    Summary of Offense: Evans, 30, a former plumber and mechanic, received the death penalty for the 1977 robbery-slaying of Elvira Guerrero, a Dallas church pianist and computer operator who prayed for forgiveness for her attacker after he shot her and her fiance, Mario Alvarado Garza, a Mexican national who had been baptized the night the two were slain. Evans told officers at his arrest that he slashed her face with a carpet knife as she asked God to forgive him

    Victim: Elvira Guerrero and Mario Alvarado Garza

    Time of Death: 12:21 a.m.

    Manner of execution: Lethal Injection

    Last Meal: Declined last meal

    Final Statement: "I want to say I'm sorry for the things I've done and I hope I'm forgiven. I don't hold nothing against no one. Everyone has treated me well and I know it is not easy for them. That's all, I'm sorry."

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    December 2, 1986

    Death row inmate requests stay of execution

    HUNTSVILLE - Killer Michael Wayne Evans, sentenced to die Thursday for the 1977 slaying of a Dallas church pianist, has filed for a stay of execution with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

    The court was considering the stay request late Monday after it was filed by Evans' Dallas attorney, Walter Irvin.

    Evans, 30, a former automobile mechanic, is to be put to death early Thursday morning for the June 28, 1977, slaying of Elvira Guerrero during a $40 robbery outside a Dallas church. She was shot and her throat slashed after she and Mario Alvarado Garza, a church friend, were kidnapped.

    Evans and Earl Stanley Smith were charged with capital murder. Smith, who pleaded guilty, is serving a life sentence at the Texas Department of Corrections Eastham Unit in Houston County.

    In requesting a stay, Irvin says his client is insane.

    A pianist for the Second Mexican Baptist Church in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas, Guerrero, 36, and Garza were found shot to death at the edge of a hay field on June 30, 1977. The bodies were found beneath bushes and leaves in the South Dallas field.

    In a statement to Dallas police, Evans admitted robbing Guerrero, shooting her twice and then cutting her face with a carpet knife as she prayed to God to forgive her attacker.

    Evans has twice been convicted of capital murder and twice sentenced to death for the crime.

    The state appeals court in 1980 overturned Evans' original capital murder conviction because of improper jury selection.

    He was convicted of capital murder a second time on Oct. 8, 1981. He originally confessed to the slayings, but later recanted, saying Smith planned and carried them out.

    In September 1983, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Evans second conviction and in March 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case.

    In the stay request filed Monday, Irvin claimed that Evans did not receive a fair trial the second time because Smith admitted taking part in the killings.

    http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...id=1986_425073

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    December 3, 1986

    Federal judge asked to block execution for killer

    HUNTSVILLE - Attorneys for killer Michael Wayne Evans have asked a federal judge for a reprieve after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to block Evans' Thursday morning execution.

    The state court Tuesday rejected the appeal filed by Evans' Dallas attorney Walter Irvin. Later Tuesday, Irvin filed another stay request with U.S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders and was preparing to fly to New Orleans Tuesday night to file a legal brief with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, if necessary, a spokesman for his office said.

    http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...id=1986_425387

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    December 3, 1986

    Appeals court considers stay rejected by judge

    HUNTSVILLE - The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans today was considering whether to halt the execution of killer Michael Wayne Evans, whose request for a stay was turned down by a federal judge in Dallas this morning.

    Michael Wayne Evans, a former automobile mechanic and plumber, is scheduled to die just after midnight for the June 28, 1977, slaying of Elvira Guerrero, a Dallas church pianist and computer operator, who was killed along with her fiance.

    U.S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders in Dallas refused a stay of execution, saying there was insufficient proof to show Evans was insane as he claimed. If established, insanity precludes execution.

    http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...id=1986_425388

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    High court denies reprieve for killer

    HUNTSVILLE - The U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-minute reprieve for condemned killer Michael Wayne Evans, who was sentenced to die for robbing and shooting a Dallas woman and then slashing her face as she died praying for him.

    The court voted 5-4 to reject Evans' appeal, which was based on his attorney's claim that the former plumber had gone insane on death row.

    When told of the Supreme court action, Evans said, "OK" and returned to his bunk in a holding cell adjacent to the Texas death chamber, Texas Department of Corrections spokesman Charles Brown said.

    http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...id=1986_425528

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    December 4, 1986

    Inmate executed for slaying woman

    HUNTSVILLE - Killer Michael Wayne Evans was executed by injection early today for robbing and shooting a Dallas woman and then slashing her face as she died praying for him.

    The 30-year-old former plumber, who refused a last meal and spent most of his final day sleeping, was escorted to the gurney in the Texas death chamber shortly after midnight and injected with a lethal combination of chemicals. He was pronounced dead at 12:21 a.m.

    Hours earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to reject Evans' final appeal for a stay, which was based on his attorney's claim that the inmate had gone insane while living on death row.

    Evans, with tears in his eyes, expressed remorse and apologized for his crimes before the lethal dose was administered. "I want to say I'm sorry for the things I've done and I hope I'm forgiven. I don't hold nothing against no one. Everyone has treated me well and I know it is not easy for them. That's all, I'm sorry."

    When told of the Supreme Court action Wednesday, Evans said, "OK" and returned to his bunk in a holding cell adjacent to the death chamber, Texas Department of Corrections spokesman Charles Brown said.

    Evans was sentenced to die for the June 26, 1977, slaying of Elvira Guerrero, a Dallas church pianist and computer operator. He was on parole at the time of the killing.

    Evans' Dallas attorney, Walter Irvin, also had appealed on the basis that the death sentence for Evans, who is black, was influenced by race. The Supreme Court has yet to rule on a similar appeal filed by attorneys for a Georgia killer who claim that blacks who kill whites are more likely to be assessed the death penalty. Evans is black; his victim was Hispanic.

    Justices William J. Brennan, Thurgood Marshall, John Paul Stevens and Harry A. Blackmun voted in favor of a stay.

    The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans earlier Wednesday refused to halt Evans' execution. A similar appeal to U.S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders of Dallas also failed. Appeals court judges ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove that Evans was insane and therefore unable to understand his punishment as the law requires.

    Evans made a final plea for a stay to Gov. Mark White, but the governor could not rule because he is vacationing in England. Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, who arrived home from a vacation in Ireland late Wednesday, turned down Evans' request.

    The execution, noticeably low-key in comparison to those in the past, was carried out with few witnesses and few reporters present. No protesters showed up outside the prison walls.

    Evans insisted that no family members attend, although he spoke with his mother, Lena Mae Evans, and his attorney, Edward Brice Cunningham, on the telephone Wednesday night.

    Guerrero, 36, and her fiance, Mario Alvarado Garza, 28, were kidnapped after a church service, robbed and then shot. Their bodies were found four days later hidden in underbrush.

    In a statement to Dallas police, Evans admitted slashing the woman's face with a carpet knife and gouging her eyes as she prayed for God to forgive him. His partner in the slaying, Earl Stanley Smith, 32, pleaded guilty and received a life sentence.

    According to police statements, Smith and Evans planned the Sunday afternoon robbery after Smith stopped by Evans' Dallas apartment. They also admitted to planning and carrying out other robbery-killings.

    The two men were scouting their East Dallas neighborhood - Evans carrying his .22-caliber pistol - looking for a robbery target when they walked into a small city park.

    Guerrero and Garza had driven to the park after a Sunday church service, and were discussing wedding plans.

    As they sat talking, Smith pulled the pistol, shoved it in the car window and demanded to be taken across town.

    Evans and Smith climbed into the car, drove to a remote field in South Dallas and robbed the two of $40 in church donations and $12 from Garza's wallet. They then shot Guerrero and Garza.

    Guerrero, who had been shot twice in the head, prayed for her killers' soul, Evans said.

    "She was holding my hand and looking into my eyes. Then she said, `God, help him, God help him," said Evans' statement. "I cut the lady from the bottom of her chin to her hairline above her forehead. I also think I cut her eyes.

    "I was trying to get her to quit talking," he said.

    Evans, whose past criminal record included convictions for drug possession and robbery, refused requests for interviews on death row.

    "He didn't seem like he was too worried," said death row inmate Calvin Williams, after he watched Evans being moved out of his cell. "He had kind of a warm smile."

    Evans visited with his mother, a sister and brother-in-law on Tuesday, Brown said.

    Evans, is the ninth inmate executed in Texas this year and the 19th since the state resumed the death penalty in 1982. Texas leads the nation in the number of executions.

    http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...id=1986_425527

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