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Thread: Richard Andrade - Texas Execution - December 18, 1986

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    Richard Andrade - Texas Execution - December 18, 1986

    Summary of Offense: The 25-year-old former fork lift operator from Corpus Christi was sentenced to die for the 1984 murder and rape of Cordelia Guevara, 28

    Victim: Cordelia Guevara

    Time of Death: 12:32 a.m.

    Manner of execution: Lethal Injection

    Last Meal: Pizza, pinto beans, Spanish rice and cake

    Final Statement: "He cried and cried and cried," a Texas Department of Corrections spokesman said.

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    Edited

    August 19, 1986

    Judge grants stay

    In another case Monday, Richard Andrade, 25, received a stay of execution from U.S. District Judge Hayden Head Jr. of Corpus Christi.

    Andrade was to have died Wednesday for the March 20, 1984, rape-stabbing of Cordelia Mae Guevara, 28, in the Corpus Christi lounge she operated.

    Andrade's attorneys filed for a stay, claiming the trial court failed to instruct the jury about parole laws and that the Texas death penalty is illegal because juries are not given the alternative of sentencing to life in prison without parole.

    http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...id=1986_260788

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    December 13, 1986

    Courts reject 1 stay plea, OK another

    HUNTSVILLE - The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a request for a stay of execution from Richard Andrade who is to be executed Thursday for a 1984 slaying.

    The court on Friday rejected Andrade's claim, filed by Corpus Christi attorney Eric Brown, that the trial judge should have instructed the jury on state parole laws in the event of his receiving a life sentence. He also claimed the Texas death penalty is unconstitutional because it does not allow a jury to consider a sentence of life without parole.

    Andrade, 25, a former Corpus Christi forklift operator, was sentenced to die for the March 20, 1984, rape-killing of Corpus Christi bar owner Cordelia Mae Guevara.

    Andrade also appealed on the grounds that the judge should have allowed the jury to consider whether Guevara provoked the attack.

    Guevara, 28, a Laredo native, the owner-manager of the Chiquita Fajita Lounge in Corpus Christi, was closing one night when an intoxicated customer started giving her a hard time, according to court testimony.

    The man, later identified as Andrade, had come across the street from a bar where he had been drinking and playing pool, customers testified. Andrade left just after Guevara shooed out her regulars and prepared to close the bar by herself. Andrade returned to the bar, attacked Guevara, raped her, then stabbed her to death, testimony indicated.

    Andrade testified he was on heroin the night of the killing and could not remember what happened. He said he thought he spent several hours in the bar bathroom, sick from the drug. He has filed a four-page handwritten appeal with the state court of criminal appeals, asking for a stay to allow him more time to pursue overturning his conviction. That court has not ruled on the appeal.

    On Thursday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the Tuesday execution of former Pasadena electrician Stephen A. McCoy.

    McCoy, 37, was sentenced to die for the Jan. 1, 1981, strangulation death of Cynthia Johnson, 18, of Houston. The court postponed his execution to allow him to file more legal briefs in his case.

    McCoy, James Paster and Gary Louis LeBlanc, abducted the woman off of a Houston street after she had wrecked her car coming back from a New Year's Eve party in Louisiana, testimony indicated.

    Paster was sentenced to death in another murder case and LeBlanc received a 35-year prison sentence after he provided evidence against the other two, said George Lambright, Harris County assistant prosecutor.

    http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...id=1986_427515

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    Judge rejects stay of execution for killer of woman club owner

    HUNTSVILLE - A state district judge has rejected a request for a stay of execution from Richard Andrade, who was convicted in the 1984 rape-slaying of a Corpus Christi club owner.

    State District Judge Mike Westergren, of Corpus Christi, on Monday turned down Andrade's appeal, which he had filed on his own from his death row cell. The appeal was forwarded to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which is expected to rule today.

    http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...id=1986_428456

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    Reprieve denied killer Andrade

    HUNTSVILLE - Three appeals courts have rejected reprieve requests from killer Richard Andrade, who is to be executed before dawn Thursday for the 1984 rape-slaying of a Corpus Christi club owner.

    The Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday turned down Andrade's appeal, filed by Andrade on his own from his death row cell.

    Similar appeals by his attorney were rejected Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Hayden Head and the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

    http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...id=1986_428800

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    Tavern owner's slaying a nightmare to family

    HUNTSVILLE - Corpus Christi club owner Cordelia Mae Guevara was just recovering from a string of financial setbacks two years ago when a drunken customer attacked her as she closed up early one morning.

    Guevara, 28, a fast-rising member of the Corpus Christi business community who dreamed someday of running a chain of Tex-Mex restaurants, died on the floor of her club.

    She was stabbed 14 times and raped. Her face was mutilated.

    Her death and the trial and conviction of Corpus Christi fork-lift driver Richard Andrade, whose execution was scheduled for early today, was a nightmare for her family.

    "I hope they do execute Andrade," said Guevara's sister, Catalina Meza, this week. "It was a very cruel death and because of that it was difficult for the family to accept."

    Guevara grew up in Laredo, the third youngest of eight children, and worked as a waitress in restaurants in San Antonio before coming to Corpus Christi in 1979.

    Relatives said Guevara was a private, independent-minded woman. Her life focused on her business. She had saved her money to become part owner and manager of a downtown Corpus Christi restaurant before buying the Chiquita Fajita restaurant in the city's refinery district.

    Just after she bought the restaurant, the food service business took a plunge and she converted her place into a tavern to stay afloat, said Sid Morrison, a former business associate.

    Times got tougher.

    She sold her condominium and prepared to sink several thousand dollars on remodeling the club into a disco, said Morrison.

    "She was a hard-working woman," said Morrison. "About 10 days before she was killed, she had let a contract on turning her club into a disco."

    "She was very happy with her business and that's what she talked about, work," said Rolando Guevara, 30, her brother. "When she would come and visit, that's what we talked about. She always wanted to have her own restaurant."

    Even with the tough financial times, she seemed to be making headway, said Morrison. "She was a hard worker, either extremely nice or meaner than hell."

    She ran the club by herself and always closed up alone. "It was catching on. They had a local trade around there," said Morrison. "She was trying to make the thing work but it was a real down time for her."

    The night she was killed, a drunken Andrade wandered into the club after shooting pool at a bar across the street.

    Juan Felipe Martinez, a foreman at a local welding shop and a club regular, testified he spotted Andrade as a troublemaker and warned Guevara. Guevara insisted on closing up alone after assuring Martinez that "she could handle herself."

    "Andrade said he was high on drugs," said Rolando Guevara. "No, I don't believe that. He's got to pay for what he did."

    The seeming senselessness of Guevara's death has profoundly saddened her family.

    "She didn't have no reason to die. He just killed her," said Rolando Guevara. "She was tortured to death. It's never going to go away. It will always be with us."

    "It's one of the very worst cases I've ever seen," said Bill May, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, "because of the degree of brutality and the fierceness of the attack. She was sexually assaulted while she was dying."

    Morrison added, "It seems like such a shame - someone who works so hard and something like this has to happen to them."

    http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...id=1986_429460

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    Rapist-murderer awaits execution

    HUNTSVILLE - Killer Richard Andrade, denied a last-minute reprieve by the U.S. Supreme Court, calmly visited with his brothers as he prepared to be executed for the 1984 rape-slaying of a Corpus Christi club owner.

    The Supreme Court Wednesday, for the second time in less than a week, rejected the appeals of Andrade, 25, a former Corpus Christi fork lift driver. Andrade was sentenced to die for the March 20, 1984, killing of Cordelia Mae Guevara.

    Andrade has spent little more than two years on death row - the shortest period of incarceration there of any prisoner executed.

    In an appeal Andrade had written himself, he claimed he received bad legal representation in his first trial. Andrade's attorneys had given up on Monday after appeals to various state and federal courts failed.

    The Supreme Court Wednesday rejected by a 7-2 vote the request for a stay. Only Justices William J. Brennan and Thurgood Marshall, who oppose capital punishment, voted to spare Andrade's life.

    Andrade selected a final meal of pizza, pinto beans, Spanish rice and cake. He requested no personal witnesses to his execution.

    Fellow death row inmate Raymond Landry, who has a January execution date, said goodbye to Andrade Wednesday morning as he was led from his cell in shackles.

    "He had the expression on his face like he had given up hope. Like when you're leaving home for the draft," said Landry, "and you're going to go but don't want to.

    "His eyes glazed over when I yelled over to him, and he said, `I'm ready to go, man.' I don't think there were any tears, but from the expression on his face, they weren't far behind."

    Landry said Andrade "was afraid of them sticking a needle in his arm. I told him not to give up hope."

    Andrade refused repeated requests for interviews. He also tried unsuccessfully to have reporters barred from witnessing the execution, Texas Department of Corrections spokesman David Nunnelee said.

    Andrade testified at his trial that he was high on heroin the night of the killing and could not remember what happened.

    Guevara, 28, a Laredo native who ran the Chiquita Fajita Lounge in Corpus Christi, was killed by Andrade while closing up shop one night at the bar.

    After Guevara's other customers had left, Andrade went into the bar, attacked Guevara, raped and stabbed her, testimony showed. After he killed Guevara, he mutilated her face.

    Witnesses at the trial testified Andrade was the last person inside the bar the night of the slaying. Andrade's fingerprints were found on a beer can outside the tavern and on the bar jukebox.

    Andrade admitted owning a ink-stained and blood-soaked shirt that prosecutors said was marked with a pen Guevara used to try to fend off the attack. Police who arrested Andrade found on his body scratches that matched those that could be made with a pen.

    Although Gov. Mark White could grant a reprieve, he has refused to do so in 18 other death penalty cases.

    "Justice is being done," said the victim's sister, Catalina Meza. "The kind of murder he committed is only done by a person who is very sick."

    Andrade, whose record included burglary, assault, theft and a parole violation, will be the 10th Texas inmate to be executed this year and 20th since the state resumed executions in 1982. Texas leads in both categories.

    Ajdrade has received two previous stays of execution.

    Andrade will be the 68th person put to death since the United States resumed executions in 1977.

    http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...id=1986_428799

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    Rapist-murderer is put to death

    HUNTSVILLE - Richard Andrade was a hard man, a man who raped a young woman as she lay dying on a barroom floor - but before he was executed minutes after midnight, he cried.

    The 25-year-old former fork lift operator from Corpus Christi, sentenced to die for the 1984 murder and rape of Cordelia Guevara, 28, burst into tears when he learned reporters would witness his execution.

    "He cried and cried and cried," a Texas Department of Corrections spokesman said.

    Andrade, who had previously received two stays of execution, was put to death at 12:32 a.m. today after the U.S. Supreme Court - for the second time in less than a week - rejected his appeal.

    Prison officials said Andrade appeared calm as he waited for death in the tiny, barred cubicle in the state's death house here.

    Early in the day, he visited with his brothers Raul and Victor. In the afternoon he visited with his other brothers, Rene and Juan.

    At 6:20 p.m., he showered and dressed for death. He wore dark brown pants, a light brown shirt, black shoes with white socks.

    At 6:30 p.m., he nibbled at his last meal: pizza, refried beans and cake.

    At 7:38 p.m., Andrade talked by telephone with his ex-wife, Gracie Estrada, in Houston. They spoke about 10 minutes.

    At 8:41 p.m., he talked by telephone with his mother, Lucinda Andrade, in Corpus Christi.

    Later, he talked with prison Chaplain Carroll Pickett and joked with guards.

    At 12:06 a.m., Pickett and guards - prison officials would not say how many - removed Andrade from his holding cell.

    They walked five feet into the death chamber, where the condemned man was strapped to a white-sheeted gurney.

    Needles were inserted into both arms, and at 12:22 a.m. the saline solution was started.

    Andrade was asked if he desired to make a final statement. He shook his head "no." One minute later, the lethal solution was administered. Andrade, staring at the ceiling, gasped, coughed and made a gurgling noise.

    He was declared dead at 12:32 a.m. and his body transferred to the Harris County morgue for autopsy.

    Andrade had spent little more than two years on death row - the shortest period of incarceration there of any prisoner executed.

    In an appeal Andrade had written himself, he claimed he received bad legal representation in his first trial. Andrade's attorneys had given up on Monday after appeals to various state and federal courts failed.

    The Supreme Court Wednesday rejected by a 7-2 vote the request for a stay. Only Justices William J. Brennan and Thurgood Marshall, who oppose capital punishment, voted to spare Andrade's life.

    Fellow death row inmate Raymond Landry, who has a January execution date, said goodbye to Andrade Wednesday morning as he was led from his cell in shackles.

    "He had the expression on his face like he had given up hope. Like when you're leaving home for the draft," said Landry, "and you're going to go but don't want to.

    "His eyes glazed over when I yelled over to him, and he said, `I'm ready to go, man.' I don't think there were any tears, but from the expression on his face, they weren't far behind."

    Landry said Andrade "was afraid of them sticking a needle in his arm. I told him not to give up hope."

    Andrade refused repeated requests for interviews. He also tried unsuccessfully to have reporters barred from witnessing the execution, Texas Department of Corrections spokesman David Nunnelee said.

    Andrade testified at his trial that he was high on heroin the night of the killing and could not remember what happened.

    Guevara, a Laredo native who ran the Chiquita Fajita Lounge in Corpus Christi, was killed by Andrade while closing up shop one night at the bar.

    After Guevara's other customers had left, Andrade went into the bar, attacked Guevara, raped and stabbed her, testimony showed. After he killed Guevara, he mutilated her face.

    http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/ar...id=1986_428798

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