Death Row Inmate's Heartbreaking Last Words

Juan Martin Garcia - a convicted killer - was executed by lethal injection for fatally shooting Hugo Solano in a robbery in 1998.

Mr Solano, a Christian missionary from Guadalajara, Mexico, had moved his family to the city just weeks earlier so his children could be educated in the U.S.

Garcia apologised to Solano's relatives in Spanish ahead of the execution. Mr Solano’s wife and daughter sobbed and told the inmate they loved him.

“The harm that I did to your dad and husband — I hope this brings you closure,” he said.

“I never wanted to hurt any of you all.”

He told his sister and several friends in English that he loved them. “No matter what, remember my promise,” Garcia said.

“No matter what, I will always be with you.”

He was pronounced dead 12 minutes after he was injected with the lethal injection.

Afterwards, Ana Solano said she wished the execution had not taken place and that she accepted Garcia’s apology because it came “from his heart.”

She said a person deserves to survive so they can share what they learn from their mistakes with others in similar situations.

“It’s about God. It’s about Jesus,” she said.

In an interview with The Associated Press last month, Garcia acknowledged he shot Mr Solano but denied the robbery, an accompanying felony that made it a capital case.

Garcia, who was linked to at least eight aggravated robberies and two attempted murders in the weeks before and after Mr Solano’s death, also insisted jurors had unfairly penalised him because he didn’t take the witness stand in his own defence at trial.

Evidence at the 2000 trial and testimony from a companion identified Garcia, who was 18 at the time of the killing and a street gang member, as the ringleader of four men involved in Solano’s shooting and robbery. The slaying and string of other violent crimes tied to Garcia convinced a Harris County jury he should be put to death.

Garcia, his two cousins and another man had already carried out a carjacking when they spotted the 36-year-old Solano early on Sept. 17, 1998, getting into his van to go to work.

Eleazar Mendoza, who was sentenced to 55 years in prison for aggravated robbery, testified that Garcia approached Mr Solano and pointed a gun. Mendoza said Garcia ordered Mr Solano to surrender his money then shot him when he refused.

Garcia told AP that it was Mendoza’s idea to rob Mr Solano and that Mr Solano escalated the confrontation by resisting.

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