{"id":26598,"date":"2023-11-17T11:02:26","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T16:02:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=26598"},"modified":"2023-11-17T11:02:26","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T16:02:26","slug":"texas-man-executed-for-murdering-five-year-old-girl-after-abducting-her-from-supermarket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2023\/11\/17\/texas-man-executed-for-murdering-five-year-old-girl-after-abducting-her-from-supermarket\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas man executed for murdering five-year-old girl after abducting her from supermarket"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A man who strangled a five-year-old girl to death after kidnapping her from a Walmart store while her family were Christmas shopping has been executed.<\/p>\n<p>David Renteria, 53, was given a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, following the death of Alexandra Flores in November 2001.<\/p>\n<p>The girl, the youngest of eight children, was led away from the store in El Paso by Renteria before he strangled her and set her body on fire, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>The child&#8217;s remains were found the next day in an alley 16 miles (25km) away.<\/p>\n<p>Renteria prayed before singing a hymn in English and another in Spanish after witnesses, including relatives of his victim, entered the death chamber and watched through a window a few feet from him during his execution.<\/p>\n<p>He asked the family for forgiveness and said: &#8220;I&#8217;m sorry for all the wrongs I have done. And for those wo have called for my death, who are about to murder me, I forgive you.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Killer&#8217;s final words<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Looking at his victim&#8217;s relatives, Renteria also said: &#8220;There is not a day that goes by that I do not think about the fateful events of that day and what transpired.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are no words to describe what you&#8217;re going through, and I understand that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He told his sister and a friend, watching through another window, that he was &#8220;good&#8230; strong&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I love you all, I truly do. I&#8217;ll see you in the next life,&#8221; Renteria added.<\/p>\n<p>He then began reciting The Lord&#8217;s Prayer as the drugs began flowing. &#8220;Our father, who art in heaven&#8221; is as far as he got.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I taste it,&#8221; he said of the drug, before mumbling something and all movement stopped.<\/p>\n<p>He was executed with a dose of pentobarbital, a powerful sedative.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sdc-article-widget sdc-article-image\">\n<figure class=\"sdc-article-image__figure\">\n<div class=\"sdc-article-image__wrapper\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16\/9\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" src=\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/23\/11\/768x432\/skynews-david-renteria-trial_6363396.jpg?20231117113534\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1024px) 1024px, 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/23\/11\/384x216\/skynews-david-renteria-trial_6363396.jpg?20231117113534 380w, https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/23\/11\/768x432\/skynews-david-renteria-trial_6363396.jpg?20231117113534 760w, https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/23\/11\/1600x900\/skynews-david-renteria-trial_6363396.jpg?20231117113534 1024w, https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/23\/11\/2048x1152\/skynews-david-renteria-trial_6363396.jpg?20231117113534 2048w\" alt=\"Convicted killer David Renteria looks in the direction of the jury as a recess is called after his mother broke down during questioning of his resentencing trial.\" \/><\/div><figcaption class=\"ui-media-caption\"><span class=\"ui-media-caption__caption-text\">Renteria during his re-sentencing trial in El Paso, Texas, in 2008<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Renteria&#8217;s execution proceeded after the US Supreme Court declined two separate defence requests for a stay earlier in the day.<\/p>\n<p>One request stemmed from efforts by Renteria&#8217;s lawyers to gain access to evidence they said could have shown he was not responsible for the girl&#8217;s death.<\/p>\n<p>Another appeal rejected by the court late on Thursday focused on claims the state&#8217;s supply of pentobarbital had degraded and would cause him &#8220;terror&#8221; and &#8220;severe pain&#8221; in violation of the Eighth Amendment&#8217;s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Abduction caught on CCTV<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors had said blood found in Renteria&#8217;s van matched Alexandra&#8217;s and his palm print was found on a plastic bag put over the girl&#8217;s head before her body was set on fire.<\/p>\n<p>Renteria was accused of patrolling the store for about 40 minutes before focusing on the youngster.<\/p>\n<p>Grainy surveillance video showed her following Renteria out of the store.<\/p>\n<p>Renteria had long claimed members of a gang called Barrio Azteca, including a person going by the nickname &#8220;Flaco&#8221;, forced him to take the girl by making threats to his family &#8211; and that it was the gang members who killed her.<\/p>\n<p>The claims by Renteria&#8217;s lawyers were based on witness statements released by El Paso police in 2018 and 2020 in which a woman told investigators that her ex-husband, a Barrio Azteca member, was involved in the death of a girl who had gone missing from a Walmart.<\/p>\n<p>A federal judge in 2018 said the woman&#8217;s statement was &#8220;fraught with inaccuracies&#8221; and was &#8220;insufficient to show Renteria&#8217;s innocence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Authorities said evidence showed Renteria carried out the abduction and killing alone.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"sdc-article-widget sdc-article-image\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<figure class=\"sdc-article-image__figure\">\n<div class=\"sdc-article-image__wrapper\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16\/9\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sdc-article-image__item\" src=\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/23\/11\/768x432\/skynews-casey-mcwhorter_6363464.jpg?20231117102745\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1024px) 1024px, 100vw\" srcset=\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/23\/11\/384x216\/skynews-casey-mcwhorter_6363464.jpg?20231117102745 380w, https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/23\/11\/768x432\/skynews-casey-mcwhorter_6363464.jpg?20231117102745 760w, https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/23\/11\/1600x900\/skynews-casey-mcwhorter_6363464.jpg?20231117102745 1024w, https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/23\/11\/2048x1152\/skynews-casey-mcwhorter_6363464.jpg?20231117102745 2048w\" alt=\"Casey McWhorter was also executed on Thursday. Pic: AP\" \/><\/div><figcaption class=\"ui-media-caption\"><span class=\"ui-media-caption__caption-text\">Casey McWhorter was also executed on Thursday. (Image: AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Renteria was the eighth inmate in Texas to be executed this year.<\/p>\n<p>His execution was one of two carried out in the US on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Casey McWhorter received a lethal injection in Alabama for fatally shooting a man during a 1993 robbery.<\/p>\n<p>The two executions bring the total in the US this year to 23.<\/p>\n<p>Source: \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sky-news-logo-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sky-news-logo-1.png\" alt=\"Sky News\" width=\"100\" height=\"20\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/texas-man-executed-for-murdering-five-year-old-girl-after-abducting-her-from-supermarket-13010149\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">A man who strangled a five-year-old girl to death after kidnapping her from a Walmart store while her family were Christmas shopping has been executed. David Renteria, 53, was given a lethal injection at the <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2023\/11\/17\/texas-man-executed-for-murdering-five-year-old-girl-after-abducting-her-from-supermarket\/\" title=\"Texas man executed for murdering five-year-old girl after abducting her from supermarket\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,3],"tags":[3558,6457,3205,9910,147,1310],"class_list":{"0":"post-26598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-usa","10":"tag-alabama","11":"tag-el-paso","12":"tag-executions","13":"tag-huntsville","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-us-supreme-court","16":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26598"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26601,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26598\/revisions\/26601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}