Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco was executed by the State of Florida for the murder of eleven year old Katixa “Kathy” Ecenarro
According to court documents Katixa “Kathy” Ecenarro was the daughter of Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco. The little girl would be sexually assaulted and murdered
Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco would stab to death two fellow death row inmates: Edward Kaprat and Charles Street
Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco would be executed by lethal injection on October 2 2002
Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco Photos
Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco FAQ
When Was Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco Executed
Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco was executed on October 2 2002
Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco Case
A man condemned for raping and killing an 11-year-old girl and later convicted in the murders of two fellow death row inmates was executed Wednesday, several years after dropping his appeals. Rigoberto Sanchez-Velasco, 43, had been declared competent to make that decision by a state judge, a federal judge and, most recently, three state-appointed psychiatrists who interviewed him Tuesday.
The family of Katixa “Kathy” Ecenarro, the Hialeah girl Sanchez-Velasco raped and strangled in December 1986, witnessed the nine-minute execution by lethal injection. “They were nine long minutes, but justice was done,” said Celia Ecenarro, stepmother of the child. “She was a nice little girl. … The thing that is always in my mind is how innocent she was.”
Police said Sanchez-Velasco confessed to Kathy’s murder after his arrest and also admitted the killing during his trial for her death. But Wednesday, he denied it in a statement issued by his lawyer after the execution. “I did not commit the crime for which I will die. It does not matter who believes me and who won’t believe me,” the statement said. “I cannot call myself totally innocent because I have committed all kinds of sins, including murder. I am receiving my punishment and I am proud to receive my punishment for those lives I have taken.” The statement was written by Sanchez-Velasco during the night and handed to a Roman Catholic priest who was among his final death row visitors, said the lawyer, Craig DeThomasis of Gainesville.
DeThomasis said he didn’t think Sanchez-Velasco had previously gone public with the denial, and he said he himself wasn’t sure what to make of it. “I don’t know that there is a case to be made, that there was an innocent man who is executed,” DeThomasis said. Ecenarro, who came from Spain with her husband to witness the execution, called his final statement “foolish.”
Sanchez-Velasco appeared calm during the execution. “I love you, everybody,” he said after being strapped in. “He was at peace with his decision” to drop the appeals, DeThomasis said.
Gov. Jeb Bush issued temporary stays Monday for Sanchez-Velasco and serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who has also dropped all appeals and is set for execution Oct. 9, after questions were raised about their competency. The stay for Sanches-Velasco was lifted Tuesday after an exam by the three-member psychiatric panel. Bush lifted the stay for Wuornos later Wednesday after a similar panel found her competent.
Sanchez-Velasco was sentenced in 1988 for the murder of the Hialeah girl. In 1995, he was convicted of fatally stabbing fellow death row inmates Edward B. “Mike” Kaprat III and Charles Street, and was given two 15-year sentences. Susan Cary, a Gainesville attorney who works with death row inmates, said Wednesday’s execution and the scheduled death of Wuornos were political moves by the governor. “These are the only two people he could have hoped to kill by November,” she said. Bush faces a re-election vote Nov. 5.
The governor denied that politics were involved. “The mother of the 11 year-old child that was raped and murdered, think of her for a moment, think about her family,” he said. “I hope they get closure on this now. I put greater weight on that than all this talk about politics.” Sanchez-Velasco, who came to Miami from Cuba in the 1980 Mariel boatlift, was the 52nd person executed in Florida since the state resumed executions in 1976.
Florida has executed 247 inmates since 1924.