Killer gang member starts SNORING as he is executed in Texas prison



Robert Gene Garza became the 12th inmate executed this year in Texas

He was a member of a Rio Grande Valley gang - the Tri-City Bombers



A former South Texas street gang member started snoring as he was lethally injected in a Texas prison.

Robert Gene Garza, 30, 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. It's not easy. This is a release. Y'all finally get to move on with your lives,' he said.

Garza 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 8.41pm.

Executed: Robert Gene Garza, 30, was killed by lethal injection on Thursday after being sentenced to death row for organizing the killing of four women in 2002

He became the 12th condemned inmate executed this year in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state.

Garza was a member of a Rio Grande Valley gang known as the Tri-City Bombers even before he was a teenager, and he told police that the 2002 shootings that lead to the deaths of four women was made under duress.

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.

Garza, who was arrested in late January 2003, was convicted under Texas' law of parties, which makes a non-triggerman equally culpable

'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.'

Evidence later would show the women were killed by mistake. The gang member in the other crime never went to trial because he accepted a plea deal and prison term.

Garza, who was arrested in late January 2003, was convicted under Texas' law of parties, which makes a non-triggerman equally culpable.

Evidence showed Garza was a gang leader, told his companions how to do the killings, was present when the shootings took place and 'in all likelihood was a shooter but is downplaying his part,' Joseph Orendain, the Hidalgo County assistant district attorney who prosecuted him, said this week.

In February, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case. His lawyer, Don Vernay, said appeals were exhausted.

Garza filed his own last-day appeals Thursday to the high court, delaying his punishment by some two hours until the justices ruled.

In his appeals, he argued that jurors should have been allowed to hear his mother’s testimony that he stayed in the gang because he feared retaliation if he quit.

Garza argued the state should assure him the lethal dose of pentobarbital to be used in his punishment was chemically effective and obtained legally. Texas prison officials have said their inventory of pentobarbital is expiring this month.

National record: Garza was executed at the Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit in Livingston (pictured) on Thursday, making him the 12th person killed by the state in Texas this year which is the highest in the country Concertina razor wire guards against escape from the facility, located 75 miles northeast of Houston

Glimpse of life on the inside: Death Row guard Sgt James Ludwig stands outside a cell

Garza also was charged but never tried for participating in what became known in the Rio Grande Valley as the Edinburg massacre, the January 2003 slayings of six people at a home in the city.

In the case that sent him to death row, Garza was convicted of two counts of capital murder for the slayings of the four women. Evidence showed the women were living in the U.S. without legal permission just outside Donna, about 15 miles southeast of McAllen.

In his statement to investigators, which Garza insisted was coerced, he said he carried out the 'hit' with three other gunmen in two vehicles who opened fire on six women in their parked car.

The Allan B Polunsky Unit has capacity for 2,900 inmates and contains 23 buildings

Garza was killed by lethal injection on a trolley similar to this (stock picture)