Execution Report: John Quintanilla

John Manuel Quintanilla Jr., 36, was executed by lethal injection on 16 July 2013 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a man during a robbery of a business.

On 24 November 2002 in Victoria, Quintanilla, then 25, and Jeffrey Bibb, 22, entered a game center through a partially opened back door, carrying rifles and wearing gloves and pantyhose masks. While his accomplice went to the game parlor, Quintanilla walked up to the clerk and ordered her to give him the money in her apron, which she did. Quintanilla was pointing his rifle at the clerk and at customer Linda Billings, who was standing next to her, when Billings' husband, Victor, 60, came up. Quintanilla shot Victor twice. Victor grabbed the muzzle of Quintanilla's gun, and he fired again. Quintanilla then shot at two customers as they ran out the front door. The head-high shots missed the customers and struck the door area. Victor Billings died from gunshot wounds to the torso. The robbers then fled with about $2,000.

According to Quintanilla's data sheet on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's web site, Linda Billings sustained a non-fatal gunshot wound.

Quintanilla was arrested in January 2003 on a warrant for an unrelated aggravated robbery. While in custody, he confessed to the murder at the game center. He then led authorities to a canal where divers recovered items used in the robbery.

Victoria County District Attorney Dexter Eaves stated in a news article that Victor Billings, a former sheriff's deputy, was killed while trying to protect his wife and the female clerk. Eaves said that in addition to Quintanilla's confession, his guilt was established by forensic and physical evidence and testimony from multiple eyewitnesses.

Public records show that between 1993 and 1995, Quintanilla pleaded guilty to three home burglaries. He was also charged with a felony weapons carrying violation and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge. He was put on 10 years' probation for the first burglary and was sent to prison after the third. Information on his parole or discharge date from prison was not available for this report.

According to the Texas attorney general's office, Quintanilla committed another five armed robberies or burglaries between September 2002 and January 2003. He also stabbed and sliced guards with improvised weapons and razor blades while trying to escape from the county jail in January 2003.

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