Execution Report: Oliver Cruz

David Oliver Cruz, 33, was executed by lethal injection on 9 August in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a 24-year-old woman he abducted and raped.

In August 1988, Kelly Elizabeth Donovan, a senior airman stationed at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, left the base to take a walk. She was abducted by Cruz, then 21, and Jerry Daren Kemplin, also 21. Cruz and Kemplin had both been drinking and using LSD. They drove Donovan to an isolated area. According to court testimony, Cruz repeatedly raped Donovan while Kemplin stayed in the car. Then, as Donovan lay on the ground crying, Cruz told Kemplin, "The last thing I need to do is go to jail for rape." Cruz stabbed the woman 20 times until she was dead. He and Kemplin left her body alongside the road.

In the ensuing days, Cruz told several people what he had done. When he learned that the police were looking for him, he called them and confessed and gave blood and saliva samples that tied him to the crime.

Ten days before Donovan's murder, Cruz was found guilty of resisting arrest and was sentenced to five days in jail. Details about the reason for the arrest were not available.

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