Texas executes killer of four

The 25th Execution of 2013

Robert Gene Garza was executed on September 19, 2013 in Texas for the ambush massacre of four woman.  He became the 12th condemned inmate executed this year in Texas, reported The Associated Press.

Garza smiled and blew a kiss to friends and relatives as they entered the death chamber. In a brief final statement, he thanked them for coming and told them he loved them.

"I know it's hard for you," he said. "It's not easy. This is a release. Y'all finally get to move on with your lives."

He took several deep breaths as a lethal dose of pentobarbital began flowing into his arms, then began snoring. All movement stopped within less than a minute. He was pronounced dead 26 minutes later, at 8:41 p.m. CDT.

A member of a Rio Grande Valley gang known as the Tri-City Bombers even before he was a teenager, Garza insisted a statement to police acknowledging his participation in the September 2002 shootings in Hidalgo County was made under duress and improperly obtained.

But prosecutors said Garza orchestrated the gang's plan to silence the women, who Garza thought had witnessed another gang crime, and was present when several gang members opened fire on the women when they arrived at their trailer park home after work at a bar.

"I really didn't have anything to do with the scenario the state was providing," Garza told The Associated Press recently from death row. "I guess since we are gang members, they got me involved through the gang.

"I think they were just trying to close his case ... and they needed somebody."

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