A Texas prisoner is slated to be executed Thursday evening for killing a 5-year-old girl snatched from an El Paso shop and then burning her body nearly 22 years ago.
David Renteria, 53, was convicted in the killing of Alexandra Flores in November 2001. Alexandra was shopping with her family at a Walmart when she was abducted by Renteria, according to prosecutors. Her body was discovered the next day in an alley 16 miles (26 kilometers) away from the business.
Renteria has long maintained that members of the Barrio Azteca gang, including one dubbed “Flaco,” forced him to kidnap the girl by threatening his family, and that the gang members were responsible for her death.
Authorities claim that Renteria’s attorneys did not pursue this argument during his trial, and that evidence in the case demonstrates that he perpetrated the kidnapping and killing on his own. Prosecutors said that blood recovered in Renteria’s vehicle matched the DNA of the dead girl. His palm print was discovered on a plastic bag that was placed over her head before her corpse was burned. Renteria was a convicted sex offender on probation at the time of the homicide, according to prosecutors.
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Renteria’s execution is one of two slated for Thursday in the United States. Casey McWhorter of Alabama is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection for killing shooting a man during a robbery in 1993.
Renteria’s attorneys have unsuccessfully petitioned state and federal courts to stay the execution, which is scheduled to take place in the state prison in Huntsville. Following the conclusion of lower-court appeals, a final appeal to the United States Supreme Court was expected.
Renteria’s attorneys claim they were refused access to the prosecution’s dossier on him, which they claim breaches his constitutional rights. The prosecution, according to his defense team, hampered their capacity to examine Renteria’s accusations that gang members were involved for the girl’s murder.
Renteria’s attorneys base their accusations on El Paso police witness testimonies from 2018 and 2020, in which a lady informed detectives that her ex-husband, a Barrio Azteca member, was involved in the death of a girl who went missing from a Walmart.
Renteria “will be executed despite recently uncovered evidence of actual innocence, evidence that he is innocent of the death penalty,” one of the defense lawyers, Tivon Schardl, stated in court records.
In 2018, a federal court ruled that the woman’s statement was “fraught with inaccuracies” and “insufficient to show Renteria’s innocence.”
In August, Texas District Judge Monique Reyes in El Paso granted a stay of execution motion and ordered prosecutors to give over their case papers.
Reyes’ instructions were eventually rejected by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles decided 7-0 on Tuesday to not commute Renteria’s death sentence to a lesser penalty. Members also voted against providing a six-month respite.
Renteria is accused of monitoring the store for around 40 minutes before focusing on the 5-year-old girl, the youngest of her family’s eight children. She was seen following Renteria out of the store on security camera.
Renteria’s death sentence was overturned in 2006 by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, who said prosecutors produced deceptive evidence that gave jurors the idea Renteria was not repentant. Renteria’s attorneys contended that a statement he provided to police following his arrest in which he showed compassion for the girl’s family and that her death was “a tragedy that should never have happened” was a display of regret. Renteria’s declaration of contrition, according to the appeals court, was “made in the context of minimizing his responsibility for the offense.”
Renteria was condemned to death again after a fresh resentencing hearing in 2008.
Renteria would be the sixth convict executed in Texas this year. If Renteria and McWhorter are both executed on Thursday, there will be 23 executions in the United States this year.
