Adolph Hernandez was executed by the State of Texas for the murder of Elizabeth Alvarado
According to court documents Adolph Hernandez would break into the home of Elizabeth Alvarado and attacked the woman with a baseball bat causing fatal injuries. Elizabeth daughter would chase Hernandez from the home
Adolph Hernandez would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Adolph Hernandez would be executed by lethal injection on February 8 2001
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When Was Adolph Hernandez Executed
Adolph Hernandez was executed on February 8 2001
Adolph Hernandez Case
The scene was all too familiar for Mary Jane Garcia. Returning to Huntsville for the second time in a month, the West Texas woman watched Thursday night as a convicted killer was put to death for murdering one of her loved ones. “For me, it was the same,” Garcia said after watching Adolph Gil Hernandez receive lethal injection for killing her 69-year-old mother with a baseball bat during a robbery more than a dozen years ago. “I’m just relieved and happy to know it’s over. We don’t have to worry about him getting out.”
On Jan. 9, she was in the Texas death chamber as convicted killer Jack Wade Clark received lethal injection for the abduction, rape and fatal stabbing of her 23-year-old daughter more than 11 years ago. “My heart goes out to the victims in any of these cases,” said Travis Ware, the former Lubbock district attorney who prosecuted Hernandez. “But especially in this case, where they lost two relatives in the same family to two completely unconnected cases. This has got to be a first.”
Hernandez, 50, became the fourth inmate put to death this year in Texas, where a record 40 condemned killers were executed last year. “I want to thank my family for their help and moral support and for their struggle,” Hernandez said in a brief final statement as he was strapped to the gurney. “It would have been a lot harder without their love.” He told relatives watching through a window he would see them “one of these days,” adding, “Just don’t rush it.” Eight minutes later, after a gasp and a sputter as the lethal drugs took effect, he was pronounced dead.
“He didn’t suffer at all,” said Ernestine Perez, another of victim Elizabeth Alvarado’s daughters who watched the execution. “I was still waiting for something else when they said he’s dead. How painful can that be? I wish my mother had the opportunity to give us a farewell like he did to his family, or that we had a chance to see her for the last time. “We weren’t given that opportunity.”
The execution came after Hernandez and his attorneys raised questions about his guilt. Hernandez, who initially said he suffered an alcohol-induced blackout the night of the slaying, in recent weeks denied any involvement and blamed the killing on a black man he couldn’t identify. His lawyers also argued unsuccessfully that a bloody shirt they said that was uncovered after 12 years would exonerate Hernandez. Courts this week rejected their appeals and Gov. Rick Perry refused a request for a 30-day reprieve.
Hernandez had a history of burglary, auto theft and assaults, contended he was not the man who bashed Alvarado eight times in the head with the bat and ran from her house in Slaton, near Lubbock, with her purse containing $350. According to testimony at his trial, one of the victim’s daughters, Josie, and a great-grandson saw Hernandez emerge from Alvarado’s kitchen the night of Sept. 30, 1988 carrying the bat and confronted him. Hernandez then fled after a brief struggle. An hour later, police found him hiding in some bushes not far away.
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/02-09-01/2001020901_s09_Hernandez.html