Texas executes Manuel Vasquez

Manuel Vasquez

Texas used one of its two remaining doses of an execution drug to kill a Mexican Mafia hitman on Wednesday evening.

Manuel Vasquez, 46, had been sentenced to die for the 1998 slaying of a woman who balked at paying a gang tax on drug sales.

Vasquez, 46, was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m. CDT (5:32 ET), 17 minutes after the drug began being administered, according to the Associated Press.

Vasquez, in a final statement, told his family and friends he loved them and thanked "the Lord for his kind mercy, faithfulness and unconditional love."

"In Jesus' name I pray," he said, then told the warden: "I'm ready."

He took three deep breaths, then began snoring loudly. The snores became progressively quiet, and all movement stopped within less than a minute. 

The sister of his victim was among witnesses watching through a window. He never looked at her. His own sister and a female friend cried as they watched in an adjacent room.

Vasquez's lawyers filed no late appeals to delay his execution for the 1998 slaying of 51-year-old Juanita Ybarra. 

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case in October 2013.

Testimony at Vasquez's capital murder trial showed Ybarra had ignored the gang's "dime" tax on street drug sales in San Antonio, so Vasquez and two partners were ordered that she "had to go down."

"Most drug dealers do know," said Mary Green, an assistant Bexar County district attorney who prosecuted Vasquez. "I'm sure she was told if you're selling, you've got to pay the tax.

"I guess she didn't take it seriously."

Fueled by a night of drinking and drugs, the hit men put on bandannas to cover their faces and socks on their hands to prevent fingerprints and barged into a room at a run-down San Antonio motel where Ybarra was staying with her boyfriend, Moses Bazan.

Bazan was beaten and stabbed but survived to identify one of the attackers, leading to the arrest of all three. He also said he saw Vasquez ask one of his companions for a phone cord and saw Vasquez strangling Ybarra.

One of the men, Johnny Joe Cruz, testified against Vasquez under a plea deal that carried a seven-year prison term. The third man charged, Oligario Lujan, is serving a 35-year sentence.

Court records show the three were carrying out orders from Mexican Mafia boss Rene Munoz, who spent years on the Texas Department of Public Safety's 10 Most Wanted List until his arrest in 2012.

Investigators also found blood of the victims and Vasquez's blood on clothing left in the trunk of a car he used, disputing Vasquez's claims he wasn't involved in the attacks.

Vasquez had a lengthy record and had been in and out of prison at least twice. One conviction involved the beating of a man who died after his body was set on fire, and he was tied to the 1992 slaying of another drug dealer who wasn't paying the gang's drug tax, which authorities say still exists.

Records also show Vasquez' father is serving a life sentence for a 1976 murder, and a brother and cousins are or have been in prison.

Vasquez was the first of six death-row inmates slated for execution in the coming weeks, but the state only had enough pentobarbital for two of them.

Officials say they are trying to obtain more of the drug, but a recent court decision that says the names of suppliers must be public could make that difficult. 

States around the country are facing drug shortages because manufacturers refuse to sell their chemicals for capital punishment.

Utah has run out of drugs and lawmakers there approved a bill Tuesday night that would make firing squads the backup to lethal injection.

Vasquez becomes the 4th inmate to be put to death this year in Texas, the 522nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982, the 9th to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1403rd overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

Source: NBC News, Associated Press, March 11, 2015

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