Pursuant to a court order by the 206th District Court of Hidalgo County, Pablo Lucio Vasquez is scheduled for execution after 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 6, 2016.In December 1998, a Hidalgo County jury found Vasquez guilty of murdering twelve-year-old David Cardenas during the course of committing an aggravated robbery. Below is a summary of the evidence presented at trial.
FACTS OF THE CASE
Vasquez was convicted of the murder of 12 year old David Cardenas during the course of robbing him. On the night of the murder, David’s sister, Hilda Cantu, dropped David off near a friend’s house. He did not return home. David and Andres Rafael Chapa, the friend David visited the night of the murder, attended a party where they were seen rolling marijuana cigarettes. Vasquez also attended the party. Police received an anonymous tip about the murder, and eventually detained Chapa. Chapa led them to David’s body. Police also received a phone call from Vasquez’ cousin, Maggie Salinas, implicating Vasquez and informing police of Vasquez’ whereabouts. Hilda Cantu, Cardenas’ older sister, testified that David was wearing a gold ring and a gold chain when she saw him shortly before the murder.
Vasquez made a statement to police in which he admitted that he hit Cardenas in the head with a pipe and cut his throat. An autopsy concluded that the cause of death was a major fracture in the back of Cardenas’ skull caused by blunt force. The body was also mutilated after death by some means that caused bones to shatter. Vasquez and his accomplice then dragged Cardenas’ body to a field for burial. Fearing that Cardenas was still alive, one of the perpetrators hit Cardenas in the face with a shovel. At some point before burying the body, Vasquez took a ring and a necklace from the body. One of Vasquez’ cousins testified that Vasquez told her that he killed Cardenas because Cardenas did not “give [Vasquez] what he wanted.” When police found Cardenas’ body, he was missing an arm, part of the other arm, had no skin on his back, and had a hole in the back of his head. Vasquez presented no witnesses during the guilt-innocence phase of his trial. The jury found him guilty of capital murder for murdering Cardenas while robbing or attempting to rob him.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On May 27, 1998, a Hidalgo County grand jury indicted Vasquez for the capital murder of David Cardenas committed during the course of a robbery.
On February 9, 1999, a Hidalgo County jury convicted Vasquez of capital murder. After a separate punishment proceeding, Vasquez was sentenced to death on March 10, 1999.
On April 10, 2002, Vasquez’s conviction and sentence were affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on direct appeal.
On August 4, 2000, Vasquez filed an application for state habeas corpus relief, which was denied by the Court of Criminal Appeals on May 29, 2002.
On June 20, 2002, Vasquez was appointed counsel in federal district court for the purposes of pursuing federal habeas corpus relief. Counsel later filed a motion to dismiss this cause without prejudice so that he could return to state court and file a subsequent state habeas petition. The motion was granted on February 7, 2003.
On March 12, 2003, Vasquez filed a subsequent application for state habeas corpus relief raising thirteen new allegations. On May 7, 2003, the Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed all of the new claims as an abuse of the writ under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 11.071 § 5 except for one allegation which was remanded to the trial court for consideration. Following the trial court’s consideration, the Court of Criminal Appeals denied relief on Vasquez’s remaining allegation on March 10, 2004.
On April 30, 2004, Vasquez returned to federal court and filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, McAllen Division.
On December 5, 2005, the magistrate judge issued a Report and Recommendation that Vasquez’s petition should be denied. After further briefing, the district court ultimately adopted the magistrate’s recommendation and granted the Director’s motion for summary judgment on March 31, 2014.
On October 3, 2014, Vasquez appealed the district court’s decision to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. On January 23, 2015, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision and denied Vasquez’s request for a certificate of appealability (COA) in an unpublished opinion.
Vasquez filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court on April 13, 2015. The Supreme Court denied review on October 5, 2015.
On December 4, 2015, the state trial court issued an order setting Vasquez’s execution date for April 6, 2016.
PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY
In addition to the cold-blooded nature of the murder, the jury heard evidence at the punishment phase of trial of Vasquez’s propensity for violence. The State presented evidence that Vasquez had committed three other acts of violence towards others in the same year that the instant offense was committed. In the first, Vasquez committed aggravated assault by stabbing a man in the arm with a knife. In the second, Vasquez confronted a man in front of his home and threw a brick at him. And in the third offense, Vasquez was involved in a fight with another inmate while being incarcerated for the instant offense. The other inmate had to be taken to the hospital as a result.
MISCELLANEOUS
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