Texas executes Ramon Hernandez

Ramon Hernandez

HUNTSVILLE — A man who prosecutors have called a serial rapist and murderer was executed tonight by lethal injection.

Ramon Hernandez had no last-minute appeals and a commutation request was denied.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused last month to review Hernandez's death sentence and a late appeal filed Wednesday morning was rejected by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Hernandez contended he had new evidence that showed his appeals lawyers earlier in the process were deficient, but the appeals court said his claim involved no new evidence and was improperly filed.

Hernandez was convicted and sentenced to die for the kidnapping, rape and strangulation death of Rosa Maria Rosado, 37, a single mom who was snatched from a Southwest Side bus stop on March 31, 2001.

During the investigation into Rosado's homicide, authorities linked Hernandez through DNA to another high profile case from the mid-1990s.

In that case, Sarah Gonzales, 13, and her cousin Priscilla Almares, 12, were reported missing on Dec. 16, 1994, then found the next day in Rodriguez Park. They had been raped, beaten and strangled.

Bandera County authorities said Hernandez also is the only suspect in a similar 1995 case. Two girls reported missing a day apart in November 1994, also from the same neighborhood as Sarah and Priscilla, were found months later buried near Medina Lake.

There was not enough physical evidence from the girls' bodies to make a forensic match to Hernandez.

Hernandez is the first of two executions scheduled this week — Preston Hughes, 46, of Harris County faces lethal injection on Thursday.

Source: San Antonio Express, November 14, 2012

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