HUNTSVILLE, Texas – {Authorities in Texas have executed a 41-year-old prisoner, 21 years after he was found guilty of the screwdriver slaying of three elderly San Antonio residents.
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Arnold Prieto was pronounced dead Wednesday 6:31 p.m., 20 minutes after the lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered. But all visible breathing had ceased by 6:15 p.m.
He became the first prisoner to receive a lethal injection this year in Texas, which carried out 10 executions in 2014.
Prieto was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death for the killings of Rodolfo Rodriguez, 72, his wife, Virginia, 62, and Paula Moran, their 90-year-old former nanny who lived with them.
Each victim was stabbed or cut multiple times with what was commonly believed to be a screwdriver. The attackers took jewelry and about $300.
Prieto made an emotional last minute speech when he was asked if he had a final statement.
“There are no endings, only beginnings,” he said. “Love y’all, see you soon.”
Seconds later he said, “I can smell it, whoa.” He took a series of quick breaths and then everything stopped, according to prison officials.
Also present were Prieto’s sister and two friends. They were led out of the viewing chamber after he was pronounced dead.
In a separate viewing room, four sons and a daughter-in-law of victims Virginia and Rodolfo Rodriguez also looked on in silence. `
Prieto had spurned a plea deal for a sentence of less than life in prison after he refused to testify against one of other men with him during the robbery.
“There was a way out,” one of Prieto’s trial lawyers, Michael Bernard, recalled last week. “We just couldn’t get there.”
No late appeals were filed in the courts Wednesday to try to halt his punishment.
Prieto and two brothers related to the Rodriguezes were arrested in Carrollton, a north Dallas suburb, seven months after the September 1993 killings. Prieto was the only one of three to get the death penalty.
Authorities said Prieto told them he and brothers Jesse and Guadalupe Hernandez believed the Rodriguezes had about $10,000 cash used for a checking-cashing business they operated out of their home.
He told police the three had been using cocaine during their 300-mile drive from Carrollton to San Antonio. Virginia Rodriguez fed them breakfast after they arrived. Then she, her husband and Moran were attacked.
{{Agencies}}
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