Rigoberto Avila was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murder of a nineteen month boy, Nicolas Macias
According to court documents Rigoberto Avila would strike his girlfriends son Nicolas Macias repeatedly causing his death
Rigoberto Avila would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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Rigoberto Avila is incarcerated at the Polunsky Unit
Rigoberto Avila Case
An El Paso grand jury charged Avila with the capital murder of Nicholas Macias, an individual younger than six years of age. Tex. Penal Code Ann. § 19.03(a).1 Avila pleaded not guilty and was tried by a jury. At trial, the evidence established that sometime between 6:00 and 6:15 p.m., on February 29, 2000, Marcelina Macias left her home to attend a class, leaving her 19-month-old son, Nicholas Macias, and his four-year-old brother, Dylan Salinas, in Avila’s care. At 7:02 p.m., Avila called “911” and told the operator that the infant boy he was babysitting had stopped breathing. When the paramedics arrived, they administered emergency treatment to the child before transporting him to the hospital. While treating the boy, paramedics found a bruise on Nicholas’s abdomen in the shape of a foot print. When they asked Avila about the bruise, he denied any knowledge of the marking. At the hospital, surgical attempts to save Nicholas’s life by repairing the injury to Nicholas’s intestines and other abdominal injuries were unsuccessful, and Nicholas died.
An autopsy revealed that major organs in Nicholas’s body had been split in two by considerable blunt-force trauma consistent with being stomped by an adult. Specifically, the medical examiner reported that Nicholas “died of internal bleeding due to massive abdominal trauma resulting from blunt for[ce] injury.” The surgeon’s testimony likened Nicholas’s injuries to those caused by such events as exiting an automobile traveling at sixty miles per hour or being dropped twenty feet.
Officer Jose Lopez testified that on February 29, 2000, he was dispatched to the home of a child who had stopped breathing. Avila told Lopez that he had been watching the television when Dylan came into the room and told him that Nicholas was not breathing. Dylan told Avila that “he had held [Nicholas’] mouth” and then Nicholas stopped breathing. Lopez then allowed Avila to drive to the hospital.
Detective Tony Tabullo arrived at the hospital to assess the situation. Because Avila was the last adult known to be with Nicholas, Tabullo asked him if he would be willing to discuss the incident with him at the Crimes Against Persons (CAP) offices. Avila initially gave a statement in which he denied injuring Nicholas. Subsequently, Tabullo received from other detectives Polaroid photographs which appeared to show an adult-sized footprint on Nicholas’s stomach. Tabullo confronted Avila with the photographs, after which Avila orally admitted to stomping Nicholas. Tabullo typed the confession, which Avila signed. The confession was admitted at trial. During the guilt-innocence phase of trial, Avila testified that he did not injure Nicolas.
The jury found Avila guilty of capital murder. After the punishment phase of trial, the jury affirmatively answered the first special issue regarding whether Avila would be a continuing threat to society. The jury answered negatively the second special issue regarding whether mitigating circumstances warranted a sentence of life imprisonment. Avila appealed, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence. Avila v. State, 2003 WL 21513440 (Tex.Crim.App. July 2, 2003) (unpublished). Avila filed an application for writ of habeas corpus in Texas state court, which was denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Avila then filed a petition for federal habeas corpus in district court. The district court denied his petition as to his conviction, but granted relief as to the punishment phase of trial. Avila v. Quarterman, 499 F.Supp.2d 713 (W.D.Tex.2007). Avila appeals the denial of habeas relief, and Respondent cross-appeals the grant of habeas relief.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-5th-circuit/1354446.html
