Post by sclcookie on May 31, 2006 1:37:44 GMT -5
South Texas man to be executed for drug-related slayings
Condemned killer Jesus Ledesma Aguilar admits he was a drug dealer who
smuggled marijuana from his South Texas home to Mississippi.
But he denies murdering his ex-partner's sister and her husband nearly 11
years ago in a Harlingen-area mobile home because of a drug dispute.
"I had nothing to do with this. I was at home" at the time of the
killings, he said. "These people they railroaded me left and right."
But unknown to Aguilar at the time of the slayings, the 9-year-old son of
the victims watched from underneath a kitchen table as his parents,
Leonardo Chavez Sr., 33, and his wife Annette, 31, were shot
execution-style.
Aguilar was set to be executed Wednesday night in Huntsville - 1 of 2 men
convicted for the June 10, 1995, drug-related slayings of the Chavez
couple.
He would be the 10th prisoner put to death this year in Texas and the 3rd
of 3 this month in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
Aguilar's attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block his
execution, claiming he was not given a chance to challenge information
used at his trial from an alleged accomplice.
Prosecutors said Aguilar, 42, killed Annette Chavez while his nephew,
Christopher Quiroz, killed her husband. Aguilar was sentenced to death
while Quiroz got life in prison at separate trials.
According to court records, Aguilar and Annette Chavez's brother, Rick
Esparza, were friends who started smuggling marijuana in November 1994
from their homes in South Texas to Mississippi. After Esparza began
smuggling drugs for another supplier, Aguilar threatened to kill him if he
didn't stop.
While Esparza and his wife delivered a load of drugs to Mississippi in
June 1995, his sister and her family agreed to stay and watch his home.
Aguilar and his nephew spent most of the afternoon and evening of June 9,
1995, drinking. They then paid a visit to Esparza's mobile home early the
next morning, when they killed the Chavez couple, according to
prosecutors.
Authorities said Aguilar was a member of the Texas Syndicate, a prison
gang, and had a violent history, including wounding a Lubbock County
police officer during a 1983 shooting and assaulting guards and other
inmates while in the state prison system.
Leonardo Chavez Jr. testified at the trials of both Aguilar and Quiroz
that he saw the men kill his parents. His younger brother was asleep in
another room.
At the trials, the boy, now 20 years old, told jurors he was awakened at 5
a.m. by a loud noise. He went into the kitchen and saw his parents on the
floor. His father was holding a napkin to his bleeding nose. He then
watched as his parents were shot in the head.
"I know it affects him still," said Nicolas I. Chavez Jr., brother of
Leonardo Chavez Sr. and the boy's uncle. "He tries to see life in a
positive way and tries to keep going."
Aguilar, however, said Leonardo Chavez Jr. was "coached" to say he saw the
condemned inmate and his nephew kill the Chavez couple.
"They're killing me for something they know they lied about," he said.
Nicolas Chavez, 52, who plans on attending the execution, said he forgives
Aguilar for the slayings but the retired Texas prison system guard said he
will never forget that the condemned inmate "destroyed" his family.
"If I could tell Aguilar something, I would show him a portrait of my
brother's family and say, 'This is the family you destroyed. You destroyed
these children's lives. They are orphans because of you,'" he said.
(source: Houston Chronicle)
Condemned killer Jesus Ledesma Aguilar admits he was a drug dealer who
smuggled marijuana from his South Texas home to Mississippi.
But he denies murdering his ex-partner's sister and her husband nearly 11
years ago in a Harlingen-area mobile home because of a drug dispute.
"I had nothing to do with this. I was at home" at the time of the
killings, he said. "These people they railroaded me left and right."
But unknown to Aguilar at the time of the slayings, the 9-year-old son of
the victims watched from underneath a kitchen table as his parents,
Leonardo Chavez Sr., 33, and his wife Annette, 31, were shot
execution-style.
Aguilar was set to be executed Wednesday night in Huntsville - 1 of 2 men
convicted for the June 10, 1995, drug-related slayings of the Chavez
couple.
He would be the 10th prisoner put to death this year in Texas and the 3rd
of 3 this month in the nation's busiest capital punishment state.
Aguilar's attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block his
execution, claiming he was not given a chance to challenge information
used at his trial from an alleged accomplice.
Prosecutors said Aguilar, 42, killed Annette Chavez while his nephew,
Christopher Quiroz, killed her husband. Aguilar was sentenced to death
while Quiroz got life in prison at separate trials.
According to court records, Aguilar and Annette Chavez's brother, Rick
Esparza, were friends who started smuggling marijuana in November 1994
from their homes in South Texas to Mississippi. After Esparza began
smuggling drugs for another supplier, Aguilar threatened to kill him if he
didn't stop.
While Esparza and his wife delivered a load of drugs to Mississippi in
June 1995, his sister and her family agreed to stay and watch his home.
Aguilar and his nephew spent most of the afternoon and evening of June 9,
1995, drinking. They then paid a visit to Esparza's mobile home early the
next morning, when they killed the Chavez couple, according to
prosecutors.
Authorities said Aguilar was a member of the Texas Syndicate, a prison
gang, and had a violent history, including wounding a Lubbock County
police officer during a 1983 shooting and assaulting guards and other
inmates while in the state prison system.
Leonardo Chavez Jr. testified at the trials of both Aguilar and Quiroz
that he saw the men kill his parents. His younger brother was asleep in
another room.
At the trials, the boy, now 20 years old, told jurors he was awakened at 5
a.m. by a loud noise. He went into the kitchen and saw his parents on the
floor. His father was holding a napkin to his bleeding nose. He then
watched as his parents were shot in the head.
"I know it affects him still," said Nicolas I. Chavez Jr., brother of
Leonardo Chavez Sr. and the boy's uncle. "He tries to see life in a
positive way and tries to keep going."
Aguilar, however, said Leonardo Chavez Jr. was "coached" to say he saw the
condemned inmate and his nephew kill the Chavez couple.
"They're killing me for something they know they lied about," he said.
Nicolas Chavez, 52, who plans on attending the execution, said he forgives
Aguilar for the slayings but the retired Texas prison system guard said he
will never forget that the condemned inmate "destroyed" his family.
"If I could tell Aguilar something, I would show him a portrait of my
brother's family and say, 'This is the family you destroyed. You destroyed
these children's lives. They are orphans because of you,'" he said.
(source: Houston Chronicle)