Luis Mata was executed by the State of Arizona for the murder of Debra Lopez
According to court documents Luis Mata and his brother Antonio Mata would attack Debra Lopez as she attempted to leave their residence. Debra Lopez would be sexually assaulted before being murdered
Luis Mata would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Luis Mata would be executed by lethal injection on August 22 1996
Luis Mata Photos
Luis Mata Case
In the early morning hours of March 11, 1977, police found the body of Debra Lee Lopez at the side of a road in West Phoenix. The twenty-one year old woman had died as the result of her throat being severed through to the spine. The defendant and his brother Alonzo Mata were arrested and charged with first degree murder. Testimony at trial revealed the following account of the events leading up to the victim’s death.
After an evening out, the Mata brothers were joined by the victim and George Castro Harrange, both acquaintances of the Matas. All four left a neighborhood bar, walked to the Mata’s nearby apartment, and began watching television. According to Castro, the victim got up to leave after about ten minutes, at which point Luis grabbed her by the hair and announced that they were going to rape her. Thereafter, the Mata brothers beat the victim, Luis with his fists and Alonzo with a rifle, and successively raped her.
At one point, Luis and the victim fell off the bed, whereupon Luis picked her up by the hair and beat her head against the cement floor. The victim soon regained consciousness and attempted to run away after Luis announced that they were going to kill her and throw her in the river. A neighbor testified that he heard terrified screams, that he saw Alonzo throw a rifle inside a car, and that another man carried either a person or a box to the car and deposited it in the front seat. The car departed.
According to the confessions of the brothers, after the beatings and rapes, the men drove the then unconscious victim away from the apartment, and Luis killed her at the side of the road by cutting her throat with a knife.
https://law.justia.com/cases/arizona/supreme-court/1996/cr-77-4104-ap-pc-2.html
