David Renteria's claim that he kidnapped 5-year-old Alexandra Flores under duress never made it to trial, according to court records
The state of Texas is set to execute a man later this week who in 2001 kidnapped a five-year-old girl from an El Paso Walmart before brutally murdering her, leaving behind her partially naked and burned body- to this day, he says a gang made him do it.
David Renteria, 53, is scheduled to be executed on Thursday, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He was sentenced to death for the murder of Alexandra Flores, according to court records and records with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
At the time of her death, Renteria was a 32-year-old registered sex offender who had already been arrested in 1992 for indecency with a child, state records show.
Flores disappeared from an El Paso, Texas, Walmart in November 2001 while she was shopping with her parents. Police the next day discovered her “nude, partially burned body” with a plastic bag over her head in an alley about 15 miles away from the store, court records say.
The medical examiner’s office said Flores had been strangled and struck in the head twice.
When Renteria was arrested for the crime the next month, he told police that a gang member named Flaco and other members of the Aztecas — a prison gang that originated in the El, Paso, Texas, prison system — “were primarily responsible” for Flores’ murder, according to court records.
He “claimed that he helped these people commit the offense out of fear they would harm his family,” court records say.
Renteria said he was the one who lured her out of the Walmart, but Flaco and other gang members burned her body and killed her.
That statement was not admitted into evidence during trial.
Death Penalty Action, an organization that works to stop executions, started a petition calling for officials in Texas to cancel Renteria’s scheduled execution.
“On death row, Renteria rededicated himself to his Roman Catholic faith and discovered a new purpose in life behind bars,” the petition says.
“In his over twenty years of incarceration, Renteria has been a model inmate who has never once committed a violent or aggressive act” the petition continues.
The petition also says prosecutors came forward with “evidence corroborating his longstanding insistence that he acted under duress on the day Alexandra disappeared.”
“No court has properly examined this new evidence due to the woefully inadequate legal representation Renteria received during the appellate process,” the petition says.
Source:
themessenger.com, Yelena Dzhanova, November 13, 2023
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