HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) _ Texas executed a former Houston security guard for gunning down four people, including his ex-girlfriend and her two small children, during a 1996 shooting frenzy.
Virgil Martinez, 41, was pronounced dead Wednesday at 6:50 p.m.
He was condemned for the slayings of 27-year-old Veronica Fuentes; her 5-year-old son, Joshua; 3-year-old daughter, Casandra; and a neighbor, 18-year-old John Gomez. Gomez, mortally wounded, told a police officer at the slaying scene that Martinez was the gunman.
In a rambling final statement, Martinez told relatives he loved them, then said, “I know what you’ve been told and that’s all a lie. John Gomez killed your kids and sister.”
A victims’ relative, Jerry Fuentes, who watched the execution tearfully read a prepared statement, saying “The wheels of justice have finally turned. Although the system is flawed, justice has been served.”
Fuentes called Martinez a liar for his comments from the death chamber gurney and said the prisoner was disrespectful to the Gomez family, some of whom also watched him die.