Texas executes man for murder of police officer
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas on Wednesday executed a 34-year-old man convicted of seizing a gun from a San Antonio police officer and fatally shooting him in a struggle in 2001, a prison spokesman said.
Manuel Garza was killed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 6:40 p.m. at the state’s death chamber in Huntsville. The execution was the 524th in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the most of any state.
Garza was convicted of killing John “Rocky” Riojas, 37, a member of an elite SWAT unit who was patrolling an apartment complex that had been hit by a crime wave.
When Riojas approached Garza, he fled from the officer, who then gave chase, court documents show. A struggle ensued and Garza used Riojas’ gun to shoot him in the head.
A jury deliberated for three hours before sentencing Garza to death in a 2002 trial that dominated media, featuring weeks of jury selection and an attack on a TV cameraman by a relative of the defendant.
Garza’s attorneys appealed unsuccessfully to halt the execution, saying he did not have adequate legal representation at the time of his original trial.
Prior to his arrest on the murder charge, Garza had been arrested for suspected burglary, auto theft and marijuana possession.
