Execution Report: Ramon Hernandez

Ramon Torres Hernandez, 41, was executed by lethal injection on 14 November 2012 in Huntsville, Texas for the abduction, robbery, rape, and murder of a 37-year-old woman.

On 31 March 2002, Hernandez, then 30, Santos Minjarez, 30, and Asel Abdygapparova, 28, were driving around San Antonio at night, looking for a victim to rob. Hernandez was behind the wheel, Minjarez was in the passenger seat, and Abdygapparova, who was five months' pregnant with Hernandez's child, was in the back. They spotted Rosa Rosado, 37, at a bus stop. They parked and watched her talk on a pay phone across the street for approximately ten minutes. As she started walking across the street, Hernandez pulled the car up next to her, and Minjarez grabbed her purse. When she resisted, Minjarez pulled her inside the car, placing her between himself and Abdygapparova in the back seat. Hernandez drove to his home, where Abdygapparova obtained some mailing tape to cover Rosado's mouth. Minjarez taped over the victim's mouth and placed a towel over her head.

According to confessions and trial testimony by Hernandez and Abdygapparova, Santos Minjarez was the leader of the group and was also the primary assailant. Minjarez's account was unavailable for this report.

Leaving Hernandez's home, the group took Rosado to a motel. Minjarez instructed Abdygapparova to take money from Rosado's purse and pay for a room. Hernandez and Minjarez then took Rosado into the room. Abdygapparova said that when she entered the room, Minjarez instructed her to go buy bleach and some douches.

Abdygapparova returned about ten or fifteen minutes later. Rosado was alive and half-naked. She and Hernandez talked in the bathroom while Minjarez raped the victim. Hernandez told her to go buy a shovel at Wal-Mart. Abdygapparova, a University of Texas at San Antonio student from Kazakhstan, testified that at the time, she did not know the meaning of the word "shovel" and had to ask for assistance at Wal-Mart.

According to Hernandez's confession, he saw Minjarez sitting on top of Rosado, holding a pillow over her head. He then went outside to make sure no one was around. When he re-entered the room ten minutes later, Rosado was dead. Abdygapparova testified that when she returned from Wal-Mart to the motel room, Minjarez told her Rosado was "gone." Abdygapparova asked if that meant she was killed, and he said "yes, she is gone." She then saw Rosado's dead, naked body on the floor.

Hernandez and Minjarez then collected everything from the room, wrapped the victim in a blanket, and placed her body in the back seat of the car. With Abdygapparova driving, Hernandez directed her to a wooded area near the University of Texas at San Antonio. She dropped them off and was told to return in thirty minutes. When she returned, they asked her to leave again. After a short time, she returned once more and picked them up.

Hernandez and Abdygapparova then disposed of Rosado's personal possessions by burning them or tossing them from the car as they drove back to Hernandez's residence. On 2 April, Abdygapparova took the car used in the murder to Austin and traded it for another vehicle.

On 5 April, Abdygapparova contacted authorities and told them about the murder. She led police to the body, the motel, and the car. She said she was too afraid of the men, especially Minjarez, to disobey them.

Hernandez initially denied participating in the crime, but the day after he was arrested, he asked to speak to detectives and gave a confession.

In March 1991, Hernandez pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary of a habitation with intent to commit theft. In the third incident, which occurred in January 1991, Hernandez and Minjarez lured Danny Zapata to Hernandez's apartment by inviting him to watch a pornographic movie. While they were inside, Hernandez left and locked them in from the outside. He then went to Zapata's apartment and raped his wife, Anna Marie Diaz. Diaz testified that she and Hernandez had been friends for many years. Hernandez was sentenced to 18 years in prison. He was paroled after three years.

In March 1994, Hernandez and Minjarez were observed burglarizing a home. Hernandez led police on a high-speed chase, which ended when he crashed his car in a drainage ditch. He and Minjarez attempted to flee on foot, but Hernandez was apprehended. He was charged with burglary, but the charges were dismissed for insufficient evidence.

In December 1994, Sarah Gonzales, 12, and her cousin, Priscilla Almares, 13, were abducted in San Antonio. Their bodies were found the next day in the brush by a road. Both had been raped and asphyxiated. The murders went unsolved until 2001, when a DNA test matched sperm found in Gonzales' body to Hernandez.

Hernandez was also a suspect in the killings of two 15-year-old San Antonio girls who disappeared within days of Gonzales and Almares.

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