OAG: Bustamante scheduled for execution 4/27

[mike5]

Media Advisory: Samuel Bustamante scheduled for execution

AUSTIN – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott offers the following information on Samuel Bustamante, who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on April 27, 2010.

Bustamante was sentenced to death for the murder and attempted robbery of Rafael Alvarado in Fort Bend County.

FACTS OF THE CRIME

On the night of January 17, 1998, Bustamante and three of his friends drove to Rosenberg to find, beat and rob a man after the bars closed.

At first, the group had trouble finding a victim. But just as they were about to give up, they came upon Rafael Alvarado. Bustamante noted that Alvarado’s clothes were in good condition and his watch looked like it was made of “real gold.”

Alvarado offered to pay the driver of the truck to give him a ride across town. The men agreed, and Alvarado climbed into the bed of the pickup, along with Bustamante and two of the other men. After a few minutes, Bustamante stood up and stabbed Alvarado ten times with a knife.

Alvarado managed to break free and fell to the ground. When the truck stopped, Bustamante and the others looked for Alvarado, but were unable to see him because it was dark, so they left. One of the men with Bustamante admitted at trial that, had they found Alvarado, they probably would have robbed him.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Bustamante’s conviction was affirmed on appeal by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The Court of Criminal Appeals denied his state habeas application in a written order on May 19, 2004. Bustamante’s federal habeas petition was filed on May 19, 2005. The court granted summary judgment for the State on December 6, 2006, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the judgment of the federal district court on July 8, 2008. Bustamante did not file a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court.

PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

At the punishment phase of his trial, it was revealed that Bustamante had confessed to the murder of Lloyd Harold Turner, whose body was found February 13, 1998, in an area underneath an overpass on Highway 59 in Wharton County, where Turner had lived for about a year. Bustamante’s signed, written confession was read and admitted into evidence.

www.oag.state.tx.us/oagNews/release.php?id=3307

[spinaltap]

getting close

[mike5]

Inmate ‘who liked to kill’ set for execution Tuesday
Laborer set to die Tuesday for stabbing victim to death

By ALLAN TURNERHOUSTON CHRONICLE
April 26, 2010, 10:32AM

Early on the morning of Jan. 18, 1998, Samuel Bustamantenames cq and three friends cruised the dark streets around Rosenberg taverns looking for a victim to rob. Unsuccessful, they were preparing to abandon their quest when they spotted Rafael Alvarado, who, to his misfortune, was well-dressed and wore a seemingly valuable watch.

Alvarado, 27, offering to pay for a ride across town, joined Bustamante in the truck’s bed.

Minutes later, Bustamante pounced, stabbing his victim 10 times. Mortally wounded, Alvarado fell from the vehicle. At daybreak, police followed a trail of blood from Rosenberg’s west city limits to Alvarado’s body in a roadside ditch. He still possessed his watch, gold chain and $100 in cash.

Bustamante, 40, an El Campo laborer, is set to be executed for the crime Tuesday. He would be the seventh killer executed in the state this year and the fourth from Fort Bend County since Texas resumed executions in 1982.

This morning the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected an appeal based on the assertion that Bustamante is mildly mentally retarded. The killer’s attorney Philip Hilder argued that his client has an overall IQ of 71 and should be spared death under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2002 ruling in Atkins vs. Virginia. In that landmark decision the high court held that executing mentally retarded killers violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban against cruel and unusual punishment.

Seeks delay from court

A second attorney for Bustamante, James Rytting, said they’ll now ask U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. A petition to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also has been filed, he said.
Hilder argued that Bustamante’s abusive childhood might have been a factor in his retardation, and offered comments from the killer’s former common-law wife that he had been childlike and unable to care for himself. When sad or angered, the woman told a Baylor College of Medicine clinical neuropsychologist, Bustamante would roll into a fetal position and cry.

In a terse dismissal of Bustamante’s appeal, the state appeals court noted that the lawyers failed to adequately establish mental retardation. “It looks as if the state of Texas is going to execute a mentally retarded man,” Rytting said.

Bustamante’s accomplices, Diedrick Depriest, Arthur Escamilla and Walter Escamilla, were each sentenced to eight years for aggravated robbery. All since have been released.

Testimony in Bustamante’s trial revealed the men stopped their truck after the attack to search for their wounded victim. Had they found him, Depriest told jurors, they would have robbed him.
Bustamante, who used the nickname “Fat Boy,” — at 5-foot-7, he tips the scales at 264 pounds — told his companions that he coveted his victim’s boots.

When a friend later showed Bustamante a newspaper clipping about the crime, he responded, “That’s what I told you, nobody gets away,” trial testimony revealed. Bustamante’s companions then jokingly begged him not to stab them.

“He liked to kill,” said Fort Bend County Assistant District Attorney Fred Felcman, who prosecuted Bustamante. “He talked about eviscerating women. … People said a dog walked into a bar one time and he took his knife — he called it ‘Old Timer’ — and just gutted it. … He liked to kill. He bragged about it.”

Texas Department of Criminal Justice records reveal Bustamante previously served sentences for theft, burglary and possession of a prohibited weapon.

Shortly after his conviction in the Alvarado case, Bustamante was returned to a Wharton County courtroom where he pleaded guilty to murdering 60-year-old Lloyd Harold Turner, an El Campo homeless man.

Authorities contended that Bustamante and his brother, Bill Bustamante, targeted the man to “work out some aggravation.”
After killing a pregnant dog, the brothers stopped at a fast-food restaurant for hamburgers before targeting Turner, whose body later was found beneath a U.S. 59 overpass. Samuel Bustamante stabbed the man 10-20 times; his brother hit him with a baseball bat.

Bill Bustamante is serving a 40-year sentence for murder.
‘Benefit of the doubt’

In a solicitation for pen pals posted by an anti-capital punishment group, Bustamante asserts, “I did do wrong, yet there is a lot more good in me than bad.”

“We are all human and make mistakes,” he wrote. “Yet, do we not deserve the benefit of the doubt?”

Bustamante wrote that he likes reading novels, animals, watching sunsets, “walking on the beach as the cool breeze blows” and “taking time to know and understand people.”

Bustamante granted but did not appear for a death row interview.

goo.gl/cpNJ

[mike5]

Execution Tuesday for killer of illegal immigrant

04/26/2010

By MICHAEL GRACZYK / Associated Press

For Samuel Bustamante (boo-stuh-MAHN'-tay) and his buddies, shopping did not involve a trip to the mall.

The men used the term to refer to hunting illegal immigrants, then beating and robbing them.

Bustamante, who's 40, faces execution Tuesday for a so-called "shopping" trip a dozen years ago that left 28-year-old Rafael Alvarado dead of stab wounds. The attack happened in Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston.

The lethal injection would be the seventh this year in Texas. At least 10 other executions are scheduled over the next three months in the nation's most active capital punishment state.

goo.gl/GJBr

[mike5]

Texas man who murdered immigrant set to die

By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press
April 26, 2010, 11:51AM

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — For Samuel Bustamante and his buddies, shopping did not mean a trip to the mall. It meant hunting illegal immigrants, then beating and robbing them.

Bustamante, 40, was set to be executed Tuesday for one such outing 12 years ago that left 28-year-old Rafael Alvarado dead of stab wounds in Fort Bend County, southwest of Houston.

The execution, by lethal injection, would Texas' seventh this year. At least nine others are scheduled over the next three months in the nation's most active capital punishment state.

Bustamante's lawyers had late appeals pending in which they argue he should be spared because his school records show he is mildly mentally impaired. The U.S. Supreme Court has barred the execution of mentally impaired people.

"I did do wrong, yet there is a lot more good in me than bad," Bustamante, who declined to speak with reporters, said on a website where death row inmates seek pen pals. "My wish is to show and prove that not everyone on death row is a bad person. Punish me yes, yet killing me is not the answer."

In a taped confession to detectives, Bustamante said he and three friends — Dedrick Depriest and brothers Walter and Arthur Escamilla, all from El Campo — spent the day in January 1998 eating and drinking and then decided to go "shopping" in Rosenberg, 40 miles to the northeast, to pick up an illegal immigrant about 2 a.m. as bars were closing. Alvarado emerged from a Rosenberg bar, approached the pickup driven by Arthur Escamilla and offered to pay for a ride home to nearby Richmond.
Alvarado joined Walter Escamilla and Bustamante in the bed of the truck and they drove off. After a few minutes and along a deserted Fort Bend County road, Bustamante told officers that he pulled a knife and began stabbing Alvarado as Escamilla held him down. Alvarado managed to break free and bail out of the speeding truck into the nighttime darkness.

Bustamante ordered the truck stopped so he could steal Alvarado's boots, but they couldn't find the victim in the dark and eventually left.

Police following a trail of blood the next morning found Alvarado's body in a ditch. The Mexican man had been stabbed at least 10 times, including wounds to his heart and liver.

Two months later, with Bustamante jailed on an unrelated charge in his home Wharton County, authorities notified Rosenberg police after receiving a tip he was involved in Alvarado's slaying.

"I don't need a judge and I don't need a jury to tell me I'm guilty," Bustamante, a former oilfield worker, told detectives on the tape.
At the time, he and his brother, Bill, were charged with the beating and stabbing death of Lloyd Harold Turner, a 63-year-old man who lived under a highway overpass near El Campo. Bill Bustamante, who told authorities of other "shopping trips," took a 40-year prison term in a plea agreement in the Turner case.
Like the Alvarado slaying, Samuel Bustamante said he stabbed the homeless man. His brother beat the victim with a baseball bat in an attack spurred by a desire to "workout some aggravation," according to their confession.

"That was pretty bad evidence right there," Sid Crowley, Bustamante's trial lawyer, recalled. Crowley said he focused on trying to keep his client from being sent to death row.

"There never was any question about guilt-innocence," Crowley said. "He confessed to it."

Jim McAlister, a former assistant district attorney who handled Bustamante's case, said he remembered Bustamante for his brutality.

"Anybody can pull a trigger," McAlister, now a federal prosecutor, said. "But stabbing somebody, it's a whole different deal. And in the back of a truck? Moving?"

Depriest and the Escamilla brothers each received eight-year prison terms for aggravated robbery related to the Alvarado case.
Bustamante was listed in prison records as 5-foot-7 and 264 pounds. Known as "Fat Boy," he had at least three earlier convictions — one in North Carolina for forgery and two others in Texas, one in Wharton County for burglary and one in Dallas for possession of a prohibited weapon while on parole.

Headed to the Texas death chamber after Bustamante is 41-year-old Kevin Varga, on May 12. Varga, a Michigan native who'd been imprisoned in South Dakota, was condemned for the 1998 fatal beating of a North Carolina man with a hammer and tree limb.

One of Varga's accomplices, 41-year-old Billy Galloway, is scheduled for lethal injection the next day.

goo.gl/EBJZ

[Deleted]

it looks like this might go down,hopefuly this dropkick wont get a last minute stay..

[The Tipsy Broker]

An El Paso hellhole, I couldn't get higher
White lightning moonshine, tastes like fire
I drank for free till I couldn't see
I fell on the floor, what I said is

I'm blind in Texas, the lone star is hot tonight
I'm blind in Texas, the cowboys have taken my eyes

I drank Dallas whiskey and lost my mind
Had high-balls in Houston, three for a dime
Everything starts to spin, loaded on gin
I fell out the door, what I said is

I'm blind in Texas, the lone star is hot tonight
I'm blind in Texas, the cowboys have taken my eyes

San Antonio and the West Texas town El Paso
Corpus Christi and Waco, the Yellow Rose is wild

Raisin hell in Austin just after sundown
When the hoose-gow police decided to come round- they said
"Boy what's the matter with you, what you trying to do?"
I looked at the man and I said

I'm blind in Texas, the lone star is hot tonight

[Deleted]

Texas man who murdered immigrant set to die
By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press
April 27, 2010, 12:23PM
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HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Condemned Texas inmate Samuel Bustamante looked to the U.S. Supreme Court to spare him from the Texas death chamber Tuesday evening for the fatal stabbing of an illegal immigrant from Mexico during an attempted robbery a dozen years ago.
Bustamante, 40, would be the seventh prisoner executed this year in the nation's most active death penalty state.
He was convicted of the 1998 slaying of Rafael Alvarado, 27, a Mexican man in Fort Bend County, just southwest of Houston, who became a target on what Bustamante and some of his friends called "shopping trips" where they would hunt illegal immigrants, then beat and rob them.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest criminal court, refused an appeal Monday from Bustamante, sending the case to the Supreme Court. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also declined a clemency request.
In their appeal, attorneys said Bustamante "clearly suffers from mental retardation" and should be spared under a Supreme Court ruling that bars execution of the mentally impaired. They also argued earlier appeals lawyers were unconstitutionally deficient in not raising the claim.
"We are all human, and make mistakes, yet do we not deserve the benefit of the doubt?" Bustamante, who declined to speak with reporters, said on a website where prisoners seek pen pals.
Fred Felcman, a Fort Bend County assistant district attorney who was the lead prosecutor at Bustamante's trial in 2001, said the condemned killer's sentiment was "a classic thing."
"I'm thinking: 'You killed who you wanted to kill,'" he said. "There's no mistake here."
In a taped confession to detectives, Bustamante said he and three friends — Dedrick Depriest and brothers Walter and Arthur Escamilla, all from El Campo — spent the day in January 1998 eating and drinking and then decided to go "shopping" in Rosenberg, 40 miles to the northeast, as bars were closing at 2 a.m. Alvarado, after leaving a Rosenberg bar, approached the pickup driven by Arthur Escamilla and offered to pay for a ride home to nearby Richmond.
Alvarado joined Walter Escamilla and Bustamante in the bed of the truck and they drove off. After a few minutes, Bustamante told officers he pulled a knife and began stabbing Alvarado as Escamilla held him down. Alvarado managed to break free and bail out of the speeding truck. Bustamante ordered the truck stopped so he could steal Alvarado's boots, but they couldn't find the victim in the dark.
Police following a trail of blood the next morning found Alvarado's body in a ditch. He'd been stabbed at least 10 times.
Two months later, with Bustamante jailed on an unrelated charge in his home Wharton County, authorities notified Rosenberg police after receiving a tip he was involved in Alvarado's slaying.
"I don't need a judge and I don't need a jury to tell me I'm guilty," Bustamante, a former oil field worker, told detectives.
Sid Crowley, one of his trial lawyers, said there never was a question about his guilt.
"He confessed to it," Crowley said.
Felcman said he remembered Bustamante telling authorities how his brother would use a baseball bat to beat victims but how he was "the one who stabs the guy."
"Bustamante liked killing" Felcman said. "He enjoyed it. He bragged about it... He meets all the qualifications of a classic serial killer.
"Of all the people I've tried, he was the one I would least like to meet on the street. I think if he wanted you dead, there was nothing to it. He'd get up close and he liked that."
At the time of his arrest for Alvarado's murder, Bustamante and his brother, Bill, were charged with the beating and stabbing death of Lloyd Harold Turner, a 63-year-old man who lived under a highway overpass near El Campo. Bill Bustamante told authorities of other "shopping trips" and took a 40-year prison term in a plea deal in the Turner case.
Depriest and the Escamilla brothers each received eight-year prison terms for aggravated robbery related to Alvarado's death.
At least nine other condemned Texas prisoners have execution dates approaching soon.
Up next is Kevin Varga, 41, a Michigan native and South Dakota ex-con set to die May 12 for fatally beating a North Carolina man with a hammer and tree limb. One of his accomplices, Billy Galloway, 41, is scheduled to die the following day.
www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6977902.html

[mike5]

Read some more of Varga's ramblings. Boy, what a whiner. Googling around the internet, it appears a number of his "relatives" who aren't really related to him and have only met him once if that many times, have been outed as being frauds.

Bustamante's last appeal has been answered by the AG. But, hey it's less than 3 hours till G-Gay.

[Rev. Agave]

This sucks. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he is getting the juice. But I have shyt to do between 5pm and 9pm, so I won't be able to be online to celebrate as the deed is being done. Hopefully when I log on at about 9:30 he'll be toast. And if you could, save some of the spoils for me. Stay thirsty, my friends.

[unkelremus]

Texas man who murdered immigrant set to die

Associated Press - April 27, 2010 5:55 PM ET

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) - Condemned Texas inmate Samuel Bustamante has lost his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, clearing the way for his execution.

The 40-year-old Bustamante is set for lethal injection Tuesday evening in Huntsville for the fatal stabbing of an illegal immigrant from Mexico during a robbery attempt a dozen years ago.

He'd be the seventh prisoner executed this year in the nation's most active death penalty state.

Bustamante was convicted of the 1998 slaying of a 27-year-old Rafael Alvarado in Fort Bend County, just southwest of Houston. Alvarado became a target of what Bustamante and some of his friends called "shopping trips" where they would hunt illegal immigrants, then beat and rob them.

[unkelremus]

Apr 27, 7:47 PM EDT


Texas executes man who murdered illegal immigrant









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HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- Condemned Texas inmate Samuel Bustamante has been executed for fatally stabbing an illegal immigrant during a robbery attempt a dozen years ago.

The 40-year-old Bustamante became the seventh prisoner put to death this year in the nation's most active death penalty state when he received lethal injection Tuesday evening.

He was convicted of the 1998 slaying of 27-year-old Rafael Alvarado in Fort Bend County southwest of Houston. The Mexican national was targeted in what Bustamante and some of his friends called a "shopping trip" where they'd hunt illegal immigrants and beat and rob them.

The execution was carried out about 90 minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch appeal from Bustamante.

[rayozz]

Official Last Meal Request:

4 fried chicken legs and thigh quarters
large order of macaroni and cheese
Final Meal

large fried okra
4 Jalapeno peppers
salt and pepper
10 hot flour tortillas
Six pack of Cokes

[Elric of Melnibone]

Another POS bites the dust.

Blessings to the families of the people this pig murdered.

[mike5]

This evil jackazz liked to rip open the stomachs of dogs for fun, too.

The canine community barks its approval for this SOB being put down.

[Deleted]

Condemned Texas inmate Samuel Bustamante has been executed for fatally stabbing an illegal immigrant from Mexico during a robber attempt.

The 40-year-old man became the seventh prisoner put to death this year in the nation's most active death penalty state when he received lethal injection on Tuesday evening.

Bustamante was convicted of the 1998 slaying of 27-year-old Rafael Alvarado, a Mexican man, southwest of Houston. Alvarado became a target of what Bustamante and some of his friends called "shopping trips" where they'd hunt illegal immigrants, then beat and rob them.

The execution was carried out about 90 minutes after the US Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch appeal from Bustamante.

AP

www.smh.com.au/world/texas-executes-seventh-prisoner-this-year-20100428-tr1v.html

[Rev. Agave]

NEXT!!

[The Tipsy Broker]

Great lyrics

[spinaltap]

Say Bye

[Californian]

“He liked to kill,”


...and now he's been cured.

Hasta la vista, creep.

[yasgursfarm]

Apr 27, 2010 19:21:01 GMT -6 mike5 said:

This evil jackazz liked to rip open the stomachs of dogs for fun, too.

The canine community barks its approval for this SOB being put down.

In my opinion, that in itself justifies capital punishment.

It wasn't that long ago we hung people at will for stealing a horse.

And rightfully so.

[zd3925]

Adios,dirtbag

[Californian]

Apr 28, 2010 7:13:52 GMT -6 yasgursfarm said:

Apr 27, 2010 19:21:01 GMT -6 mike5 said:

This evil jackazz liked to rip open the stomachs of dogs for fun, too.

The canine community barks its approval for this SOB being put down.

In my opinion, that in itself justifies capital punishment.

It wasn't that long ago we hung people at will for stealing a horse.

And rightfully so.

Cruelty to animals is one leg of the "homicidal triad." We don't know about playing with fire or enuresis, but on the other hand, it doesn't matter now.

The sun came up on a better world today because this creep is no longer amongst the living.

[moonlight]

This thug was a cruel vicious mean person who harmed weak people exploiting their situation as illegal immigrants. For people like him the death penalty is suitable.