Mexican man executed for HPD officer's death

This handout image provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Edgar Tamayo. Attorneys for the Mexican national on Texas death row for the slaying of a Houston police officer hoped a civil suit, challenging what they argued is an unfair and secretive clemency process in the nationâs most active capital punishment state would block the inmateâs scheduled execution this week. Tamayo, 46, was set for lethal injection Wednesday evening, Jan. 22, 2014, in Huntsville. (AP Photo/Texas Department of Criminal Justice) less This handout image provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Edgar Tamayo. Attorneys for the Mexican national on Texas death row for the slaying of a Houston police officer hoped a civil suit, ... more Photo: HOPD Photo: HOPD Image 1 of / 44 Caption Close Mexican man executed for HPD officer's death 1 / 44 Back to Gallery

HUNTSVILLE — Edgar Tamayo, the Houston cop killer whose case rallied advocates from Mexico to Washington, D.C., went to his death without a word Wednesday in the state's Huntsville death house.

He was the first Texas killer to be executed this year; the first of four Harris County murderers set to die in the next four months.

Tamayo, 46, was condemned for the January 1994 murder of Houston police officer Guy Gaddis, 24. Tamayo, who had been imprisoned in California for aggravated robbery, shot the officer three times with a pistol hidden in his clothing as he was being taken to jail.

The execution was delayed three hours as the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether to take up his final appeals based on mental retardation and the violation of his United Nations treaty rights to contact his consulate.

As Tamayo was escorted to the execution room, police officers who had come to demonstrate support of the victim's family revved their motorcycles.

The lethal injection was administered at 9:15 p.m. and Tamayo was declared dead 17 minutes later.

Tamayo made no final statement, but earlier Wednesday he told prison officials that he was "ready to go."

"Twenty years is too long," he said of the time he had spent on death row.

Gaddis family speaks

After the execution, members of the Gaddis family addressed the media. As reporters waited for them to take the stand, representatives of the Mexican government expressed support for the killer's family and decried the execution.

Then Gayle Gaddis, walking with apparent difficulty, approached the microphone. "A little bit of my shredded heart is feeling better," she said.

Speaking in English and Spanish, the officer's brother, Gary Gaddis, offered condolences to the Tamayo family, but said those gathered "should remember the real victim."

Outside the death house, Tamayo's supporters held aloft a framed picture of Jesus and prayed in Spanish. "Honor Dr. King Stop Executions," their placards read. "Father, Son, Brother. Edgar is Loved By Many."

On the prison's other end, about 50 policemen - part of the usual motorcycle motorcade that arrives when killers of police are executed - talked quietly, awaiting the execution hour.

Gun hidden in clothes

Events leading to Gaddis' death began early on the morning of Jan. 21, 1994, when a man flagged down the officer's car to report that he had been robbed by two men in the parking lot of the Topaz Club in southwest Houston.

Gaddis found Tamayo and the second man at the scene.

The men repeatedly were subjected to pat-down searches, but police overlooked a pistol hidden in Tamayo's waistband. Both were handcuffed and placed in the squad car's back seat.

After extricating the pistol, Tamayo told Gaddis he didn't want to go to jail. Then he opened fire. Two slugs shattered the policeman's skull, a third lodged in his neck. Tamayo escaped by breaking a squad car window but was apprehended a short distance away.

"It's the police officer's fault for not having searched me good," Tamayo later told police.

Gaddis, who had wanted to become a policeman since age 10, had been told just four days before his death that he would become a father.

Tamayo's case gained international attention because authorities failed to tell him that he could contact his nation's consulate under provisions of a United Nations treaty.

Had Tamayo talked with Mexican officials in Houston, his lawyers said, efforts to locate witnesses in Mexico could have begun in a timely manner.

Such testimony, they contended, might have established mitigating circumstances during his trial's punishment phase and saved his life.

State's refusal

The Mexican Consulate was apprised of Tamayo's case about 10 days before his trial.

Intensifying the controversy was the state's refusal to give Tamayo a court hearing to determine how his lost chance to contact Mexican officials affected his trial, his lawyers said.

The Texas attorney general's office said it offered Tamayo a court review, but the killer rejected the offer.

In 2004, an international court ruled that the cases of Tamayo and other prisoners whose treaty rights were violated should be granted hearings. Mexican and U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, repeatedly called for such a hearing.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry responded that killers committing their crimes in Texas would answer to Texas laws.