Execution Report: Jonathan Green

Jonathan Marcus Green, 44, was executed by lethal injection on 10 October 2012 in Huntsville, Texas for the abduction, rape, and murder of a 12-year-old girl.

On 21 June 2000, Victoria and Christina Neal of Dobbin - a rural community in Montgomery County, about 50 miles north of Houston - went to their friend's house down the street. Their friend's name was Maria Jimenez. The girls were driven there by Victoria's boyfriend, Manuel Jimenez, who was also Maria's uncle. While they were at Maria's house, talking with Maria's two brothers, Martin and Jose, Victoria, 16, and Christina, 12, got into an argument. Victoria walked away. A few minutes later, Jose informed her that Christina was angry and had left. When Victoria returned home, she noticed Christina wasn't there.

The next day, their father, Victor, asked Victoria and her other sister, Jennifer, 15, to go to Maria's house and tell Christina to come home, but they found that she wasn't there. After learning of the argument between Christina and Victoria, Victor concluded she must have spent the night at another friend's house, and they began searching for her. Along the road near their house, they found Christina's glasses, "smashed and broken". Christina had run away before and was known to destroy her glasses when she got angry, however, so the family did not report her disappearance to the police until another day of searching for her on their own.

On 26 June, the Federal Bureau of Investigation joined in the search. On that same day, Jennifer and her mother, Laura, who was separated from Victor, found Christina's panties at the edge of the woods across from the Neal home. Her bracelet and necklace were found along a pathway in the woods. A wallet belonging to Jonathan Green was discovered in the vicinity.

On 28 June, investigators spoke with Green. He said he had no information concerning Christina's disappearance, and that he was either at home or at his neighbor's home on the night she disappeared. He gave investigators permission to search his home and property with him present. They did not find anything significant.

On 19 July, Manuel Jimenez, who lived on the property adjacent to Green's, told investigators that Green had an unusually large fire in his burn pile the day after Christina disappeared. FBI agents Mark Young and Sue Hillard went back to Green's home a few days later and obtained his permission to search his property and burn pile. Agent Young probed the area with a metal rod and found a section of ground that had been disturbed, from which the odor of "some sort of decaying body" emanated. Green told the agents that he had buried a bulldog there two years ago. When the investigation team began gathering their shovels and equipment to dig up the disturbed area, Green became angry and ordered the officers to leave.

The team returned to Green's property later that night with a search warrant. During their absence, the burn pile had been partially excavated, leaving what appeared to be an empty shallow grave. They observed the "extremely foul, fetid odor" of a "dead body in a decaying state". They asked Green what happened to the area while they were getting the search warrant. He told them he dug it out to prove to them that "there was no dead body in there."

With the help of a "cadaver dog", agents found Christina's remains behind a recliner inside Green's ramshackle home. Her body had been wrapped in a blanket and stuffed in a laundry bag. There were ligatures on her neck and wrists. Agents also found burned remnants of Christina's clothing and personal effects in the burn pile.

An autopsy concluded that Christina had been sexually assaulted and then strangled. Hair evidence recovered from her pubic area implicated Green. Carpet fibers found on Christina's body and in her mouth matched the carpet in Green's home, as did carpet fibers found on the panties that were discovered five days after her disappearance.

Green did not admit guilt in his trial or appeals. He theorized that the killer or killers disposed of Christina's body on his property. Just before her body was discovered behind his recliner, Green was heard to say "Those Mexicans are setting me up" and "put a body in my house."

Green had no prior felony convictions, but the state presented evidence of past criminal violence at his punishment hearing. One woman testified that he raped her in 1998. Another woman testified about two occasions where he raped or attempted to rape her. Witnesses testified about five separate incidents where he assaulted or threatened inmates or officers at the Montgomery County jail while he was awaiting trial.

Continued on Page 2