Jaime Elizalde was executed by the State of Texas for a double murder
According to court documents Jaime Elizalde was involved in an argument outside of a bar. A few days later he would return and call the two victims out of the bar where he would fatally shoot Juan Guajardo and Marcos Vasquez
Jaime Elizalde was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Jaime Elizalde would be executed by lethal injection on January 31 2006
Jaime Elizalde Photos
Jaime Elizalde FAQ
When Was Jaime Elizalde Executed
Jaime Elizalde was executed on January 31 2006
Jaime Elizalde Case
A prayerful Jaime Elizalde Jr. was executed Tuesday evening for the fatal shooting of two men outside a Houston cantina more than 11 years ago.
In a brief final statement, Elizalde thanked friends for their support and urged fellow death row inmates to “keep the faith and stay strong and put your faith in the Lord.” “Many times in life we take the wrong road and there are consequences for everything,” he said. “Mistakes are made but with God all things are possible, so put your faith and trust in him.” Elizalde said that inmates talk about Supreme Court reprieves, but “the real supreme court you must face up there and not down here. The best reprieve is from God himself.” Elizalde also urged them to keep their heads up and stay strong and expressed his love. Then he began praying as the drugs were taking effect. Eight minutes later at 6:17 p.m. CST he was pronounced dead.
At the time of his arrest, Elizalde, 34, was on parole after serving almost four years of a 10-year term for cocaine possession and auto theft — a conviction he picked up at age 17. The double slaying culminated an argument days earlier between his father and one of the victims.
The lethal injection was the second this year in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state. Three more inmates, among at least a dozen with execution dates in the coming months, are scheduled to die in February.
About 30 minutes before his scheduled execution time, the U.S. Supreme Court turned down late appeals attorneys filed in hopes of halting the punishment. Elizalde’s lawyers argued he could be mentally retarded and ineligible for execution. They also challenged Texas’ use of lethal drugs as the execution method, saying they caused unconstitutional pain and suffering. The Supreme Court, within moments of the announcement of its ruling on Elizalde, stopped a Florida execution where an inmate raised a similar claim about the drug use. State attorneys, in a court filing, said the mental retardation claim was meritless and “nothing more than a calculated attempt to postpone his execution.” The injection complaint, they said, was frivolous and should have been raised years ago. They also argued Elizalde never exhausted administrative remedies within the Texas prison rules about the drugs used to kill him and wasn’t entitled to court intervention.
Elizalde, who worked as a welder and dropped out of Houston public schools in the ninth grade, admitted in a recent interview from death that he was at the El Lugar bar the night of Nov. 5, 1994. That was a violation of his parole, but he said he was not involved in the shootings of Juan Saenz Guajardo, 29, and Marcos Sanchez Vasquez, 33.
“I don’t know what happened,” Elizalde said. “I had nothing to do with that. That was none of my business.” He did not testify at his capital murder trial. Two witnesses familiar with him identified Elizalde as the gunman. “Everything was just hearsay and circumstantial,” Elizalde said.
Jurors at his trial also were told of his leadership in the Mexican Mafia, a notorious prison gang. They also heard evidence of his involvement in assaults while in prison, including the stabbing of another inmate. “Sometimes you do what you’ve got to do,” Elizalde said. “Fear has never been something that’s gripped me. Death comes to all of us. … “I’ve been in front of a gun where I’ve had the hammer come down and it didn’t go off. I’ve been stabbed. I’ve been in so many fights. I’ve had to have my head sewn up. You have to adapt. So I can’t really say I’m scared of dying.”
Elizalde’s father, who also was at the bar, was arrested in the case and jailed for some two years before he was released. Prosecutors said the father signaled his son, pointing out the victim, while heading outside. Both Elizalde and his father, who never was tried, denied any such signal.
Elizalde was set to die in November but received a reprieve after confessing to another killing that landed someone else in prison. He also said the man convicted of that slaying was responsible for the two killings that earned him a spot on death row. When a judge called on him two weeks ago to testify about the other case, Elizalde cited his Fifth Amendment rights and refused to answer questions.
Next on the execution schedule is Robert Neville, 31, condemned for the 1998 abduction and torture slaying of a 19-year-old co-worker at an Arlington super market.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3626651.html
