TEXAS LAST MEAL
DAVID MARTINEZ
February 4, 2009
...Martinez confessed to the murders, bragging that he had killed them like cockroaches...
Martinez had no final meal request.
The skinny: Martinez, 36, was executed for fatally bashed his girlfriend and her teenage son with a baseball bat.
Martinez had won permission from the courts to stop appeals to spare his life.
More skinny: Martinez lived with his girlfriend, Carolina Prado and her two children, a boy and a girl ages 14 and 10. Martinez beat the girlfriend to death with a baseball bat in her bed, and used the same bat on the boy in the living room. The girl was left tied up but unharmed and had seen her brother beaten to death by Martinez.
She escaped and returned with her grandmother who discovered the bodies. Upon arrest, Martinez confessed to the murders, bragging that he had killed them like cockroaches. In a statement to police, he said the slayings occurred after he drank a 12-pack of beer and a large bottle of rum. No apparent motive for the murders was revealed.
He later testified at his trial, however, that police coerced him into making a confession and denied any role in their deaths.
At the time of his arrest at his grandmother's home in San Marcos, where he fled after the killings, he'd also been sought for nine months for refusing to report to his parole officer.
Priors: Martinez was on parole after serving five months of a five-year sentence for attempted sexual assault when he was arrested for the slayings.
Martinez was known as "Snoopy" and "Bam Bam." He had a lengthy juvenile criminal history that began at age 13 when authorities said he broke into a neighbor's house and stole her panties.
When he was 16 in 1988, he received juvenile probation for six burglaries and eventually was placed with the Texas Youth Commission.
Three years later, he pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault for an attack on a McAllen shoe store manager. He received a probated sentence, then went to prison for probation violations. He was released on parole.
Last words and such: "Nothing I can say can ever change the past," Martinez said from the death chamber gurney. "I hope one day you can find peace. I am sorry for all of the pain I have caused you for all those years. There is nothing else I can say that can help you." Martinez also expressed love to his family and apologized for making them grieve. "I am sorry to put you through this as well. I can't change the past. I hope you find peace and know that I love you. I am sorry. I am sorry and I can't change it. Keep on going and it will be OK." Then as the drugs began taking effect, he added, "I'm sorry. I truly am."
Eight minutes later, he was pronounced dead.
The young girl whose life was spared was among the people watching Martinez die. She was held by an uncle during the 11 minutes they spent in the death chamber witness area, then was placed in a wheelchair as she departed.
She declined to speak with reporters after the punishment.
Factoid: Martinez was the...
9th murderer executed in U.S. in 2009
1145th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
6th murderer executed in Texas in 2009
429th murderer executed in Texas since 1976
posted by Mike @ 1:27 PM
