Texas Execution Information Center

Execution Report: Manuel Vasquez

Manuel Vasquez
Manuel Vasquez
Executed on 12 March 2015

Manuel Vasquez, 46, was executed by lethal injection on 11 March 2015 in Huntsville, Texas for killing a woman on the orders of the Mexican mafia.

In the early morning of 19 March 1998 in San Antonio, Mosas Bazan heard a knock on the door of the room at the New Laredo Motel where he was staying with Juanita Ybarra, 51. He looked out the window and saw three men. When he cracked the door open with the chain attached, Vasquez, then 29, Oligario Lujan, and Johnny Joe Cruz pushed the door open, breaking off the chain, and rushed into the room. Lujan and Cruz struck, kicked, and stabbed Bazan while Vasquez struck Ybarra and began strangling her. When Cruz and Lujan attempted to strangle Bazan, he feigned losing consciousness. He heard Ybarra yell one last time, and then she stopped. He heard the men discussing taking his body outside, cutting him into pieces, and throwing him into the lake, but they were unable to lift him. He then actually lost consciousness. The assailants stole jewelry, drugs, and other valuables from the victims. They fled the room when they heard sirens in the distance. They drove away in a car belonging to Michelle Rodriguez. They changed clothes a few blocks away at George Martinez' house and left their bloody clothes in the car.

The San Antonio police arrived at the crime scene at around 8:30 a.m. Juanita Ybarra was dead from strangulation. She was lying on the bed, face down, with her hands bound behind her back and a ligature wrapped around her neck. Mosas Bazan was alive, but bloody and disoriented, and appeared to be drifting in and out of consciousness. A wire and a piece of cloth were wrapped around his neck.

Rodriguez' car was later found a few blocks away, at the home of George Martinez. DNA found on some of the bloody clothing was matched to Vasquez. Bazan's DNA was found on another article of clothing.

Mosas Bazan recovered from his injuries. Although the assailants were wearing masks or other coverings over their faces when they entered the room, Cruz removed his during the attack, before Bazan feigned losing consciousness. Bazan knew Cruz from high school. He also knew Lujan as someone who had done yardwork for Ybarra in the past, and he had met Vasquez through Lujan.

Johnny Joe Cruz testified against Vasquez at his trial. Cruz stated that he was an associate of the Mexican mafia, to which Vasquez and Lujan belonged as full members. He said that two days before the murder, Vasquez and Lujan told him that Ybarra, a drug dealer, had to die "because she wasn't paying her ten percent" to the mafia. Cruz testified that he and Lujan subdued Bazan while Vasquez strangled Ybarra with a telephone cord. Vasquez ordered Lujan to stab Bazan, but Lujan stabbed the floor instead, bending the knife.

A juvenile witness testified that on the eve of the murder, she was at the New Laredo Motel with Vasquez, Lujan, Cruz, Rodriguez, and others. She believed that the people in the room were taking heroin. At one point, Vasquez, Lujan, and Cruz picked up some towels and bandanas. Vasquez asked Rodriguez for her car keys, and then the three men left the room.

San Antonio police detectives who had previous experience with Mexican mafia prosecutions testified that the organization required drug dealers to pay a "dime" tax of 10 percent on the proceeds of illegal drug sales. If a dealer failed to pay the tax, mafia members collected it from them via robbery. A dealer who failed to pay the tax a second time was killed.

The defense presented a witness, Mercedes Villarreal, who testified that she was dating Vasquez at the time of the murder. She stated that he phoned her between 5:50 and 6:00 a.m. on the morning of the murder and asked her to pick him up at a location near the New Laredo Motel. She picked him up about 45 minutes later. She saw no blood or injuries on him and did not notice anything remarkable about his appearance or behavior.

The defense accused the state of conspiring with Cruz so that he would tell the story that the prosecution wanted told.

Vasquez had several prior convictions for violent felonies. In 1986, he participated in the killing of Robert Alva, who was choked with a belt, beaten with a crowbar, doused with gasoline, and set on fire. He was convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was released on parole in 1991. Less than a year later, Vasquez killed drug dealer Richard Pacheco for failing to pay his "taxes" to the mafia. Also in 1992, he stabbed Hector Zacharias. He was convicted of attempted murder and given an 8-year prison sentence. He was released on parole again in 1995. (At the time, Texas was under strict prison population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.)

Vasquez continued to associate with the Mexican mafia while in jail and in prison. He was disciplined for possessing a weapon, inciting a riot, and fighting.

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