Corpus Christi Caller-Times
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review appeals from three condemned Texas inmates, including a Robstown man convicted of killing a 4-year-old girl.
The high court, without comment, rejected the appeal of Richard Vasquez, 32, who was convicted of beating his girlfriend’s 4-year-old daughter to death in 1998 in Corpus Christi’s Annaville area. Miranda Lopez died March 5, 1998, from head injuries she suffered during a beating. Vasquez testified that, when he hit her, he was upset that he had to baby-sit Miranda instead of being able to steal something so he could buy heroin.
Doctors testified that Miranda had trauma to her genitals and had cocaine in her blood when paramedics took her to Driscoll Children’s Hospital in a deep coma. Vasquez testified that he did not sexually assault her or give her cocaine.
In Vasquez’s appeal, his lawyers argued that his trial attorneys did little to show jurors that Vasquez had a troubled childhood that could have swayed them to sentence him to life in prison, rather than death. His father was a drug user and dealer, and his mother lived with a drug dealer.
The high court, without comment, also rejected appeals from Guadalupe Esparza and Steven Woods.
Esparza, 46, was condemned of kidnapping, sexually assaulting and strangling a 7-year-old San Antonio girl in 1999. In his losing appeal the Supreme Court declined to review, his attorneys argued that the former bricklayer and cook was mentally impaired and thus ineligible to be executed.
Woods, 31, was convicted of robbing and killing a Dallas man and Denton woman in 2001. The two, shot multiple times and with their throats cuts, were found by golfers in May 2001 along a golf course road midway between Dallas and Denton. Prosecutors said Woods lured the male victim to the isolated spot on the pretense of a drug deal and killed him. They said Woods killed the woman because she showed up with the other victim and was an witness.
Woods’ attorneys argued that his trial attorneys were deficient for not fully investigating and presenting mitigating evidence to the jurors who sentenced him to death.
The Associated Press and the Caller-Times staff contributed material for this article.
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