PEDOPHILE FROM SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: GUADALUPE ESPARZA (EXECUTED IN TEXAS ON NOVEMBER 16, 2011)

            On this date, November 16, 2011, a pedophile from San Antonio, Texas, Guadalupe Esparza was executed by lethal injection in that state. He was convicted of the June 30, 1999 murder of 7-year-old Alyssa Vasquez. I will post information about him from clarkprosecutor.org.

Guadalupe Esparza

The victim, 7-year-old Alyssa Vasquez

Summary:
Esparza, who was a registered sex offender after a 1985 rape, abducted 7 year old Alyssa Vasquez from her home while her mother was out and the babysitter was next door. He raped and strangled her, then abandoned her body in a nearby field. When the babysitter discovered the child missing, she saw Esparza running down the street. Esparza lived two miles away. Police recovered a blood spattered shirt and boxer shorts of Esparza in a nearby trash bin. Testimony of a cellmate and a guard at the County Jail confirmed that Esparza had admitted the murder to them. Scientific testing revealed that Esparza’s DNA was consistent with the DNA extracted from spermatozoa on Vasquez’s oral swab. The evidence was retested in 2001 with the same results.

Citations:
Esparza v. State, Not Reported in S.W.3d (Tex.Crim.App. 2003). (Direct Appeal)
Esparza v. Thaler, 408 Fed.Appx. 787 (5th Cir. 2010). (Habeas)

Final/Special Meal:
None.

Last Words:
"To the family of Alyssa Vasquez, I hope you will find peace in your heart. My sympathy goes out to you. I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me. I don't know why all of this happened."

Internet Sources:
Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (Esparza)

Esparza, Guadalupe
Date of Birth: 11/21/1964
DR#: 999385
Date Received: 05/25/2001
Education: 10 years
Occupation: bricklayer, cook, laborer
Date of Offense: 06/30/1999
County of Offense: Bexar
Native County: Bexar
Race: Hispanic
Gender: Male
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 5' 4"
Weight: 193 

Prior Prison Record: #398586 on a 12 year sentence from Bexar County for one count of aggravated sexual assault. Released on parole on 07/27/1990. Returned from parole on 08/29/1993. #646560 on an 8 year sentence from Bexar County for possession of cocaine. released on mandatory supervision on 1/12/1996. 

Summary of incident: On 06/06/1999 in San Antonio, Esparza kidnapped and sexually assaulted a 7 year old Hispanic female. Esparza then strangled the victim with his hands, causing her death.
Co-Defendants: None. 

Texas Attorney General

Media Advisory: Monday, November 14, 2011 

Media advisory: Guadalupe Esparza scheduled for execution 

AUSTIN – Pursuant to a court order by the 175th District Court of Bexar County, Guadalupe Esparza is scheduled for execution after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 16, 2011. On March 6, 2001, a Bexar County jury found Esparza guilty of the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of seven-year-old Alyssa Vasquez. 

FACTS OF THE CRIME 

In its opinion on direct appeal, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals described the murder of Alyssa Vasquez as follows: . . .[O]n June 6, 1999, appellant [Esparza] abducted Alyssa Vasquez from her home while her mother was out and the babysitter was next door. He raped and strangled her, and abandoned her body in a nearby field . . . 

. . .[O]n the night of the offense, before Alyssa Vasquez was discovered missing, appellant [Esparza] telephoned her residence several times and came by looking for her mother and asking when she was going to return home. The babysitter discovered that Vasquez was missing at around 2:30 a.m. and later observed appellant [Esparza] running down the street away from the residence. Police found appellant [Esparza] at his residence, which was one and one-half to two miles from Vasquez’s apartment, at approximately 4:00 a.m., and found appellant’s [Esparza’s] blood-spotted shirt and boxer shorts in a trash can outside the residence. The evidence also showed that appellant [Esparza] admitted his involvement in the offense to a detention guard and to a fellow inmate at the Bexar County Jail, and implied his involvement to another inmate; the only contrary evidence was appellant’s [Esparza’s] own testimony, in which he denied making these statements. Scientific testing revealed that appellant’s [Esparza’s] DNA was consistent with the DNA extracted from spermatozoa on Vasquez’s oral swab.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY 

On November 9, 1999, Esparza was indicted in the 175th District Court of Bexar County, Texas, for the capital murder of Alyssa Vasquez. Because Esparza was charged with committing the murder in the course of committing the offenses of sexual assault, kidnapping, and burglary, he was indicted for capital murder. 

On March 6, 2001, Esparza was found guilty by a jury for the offense of capital murder as charged in the indictment. On March 15, 2001, following a separate punishment hearing, Esparza was sentenced to death. 

On June 4, 2003, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Esparza’s direct appeal and affirmed his conviction and sentence. 

On November 10, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Esparza’s direct appeal when it denied his petition for writ of certiorari. 

On February 28, 2007, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ultimately adopted the trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law recommending that Esparza’s initial state application for habeas relief, filed in March 2003, be denied. The high court also found that Esparza’s subsequent application, filed in December 2003, did not meet any exception to the filing deadline, and dismissed the petition as an abuse of the writ. 

On June 8, 2007, Esparza attempted to appeal his conviction and sentence by filing a pro se petition for federal habeas relief in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The case was soon transferred to the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division. 

On September 21, 2007, Esparza, with the aid of counsel, filed an amended petition for federal habeas relief in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. 

On March 24, 2010, the federal district court denied Esparza the relief requested in his federal habeas petition, and also denied a COA. 

On November 9, 2010, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of relief when it rejected Esparza’s request for a COA in an unpublished opinion. 

On May 16, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court again denied Esparza’s petition for certiorari. 

On August 16, 2011, the trial court issued an order setting Esparza’s execution date for Wednesday, November 16, 2011. 

On September 21, 2011, Esparza filed a third application for writ of habeas corpus with the state trial court. 

On October 19, 2011, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals again dismissed Esparza’s subsequent state habeas application as an abuse of the writ. 

PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY 

Under Texas law, the rules of evidence prevent certain prior criminal acts from being presented to a jury during the guilt-innocence phase of the trial. However, once a defendant is found guilty, jurors are presented with information about the defendant’s prior criminal conduct during the second phase of the trial – which is when they determine the defendant’s punishment. 

During the punishment phase of Esparza’s trial, jurors learned about Esparza’s criminal behavior and misconduct that stretched over a period of nearly 20 years. Testimony and exhibits established that Esparza, born in November 1964, was arrested for attempted arson in 1978 and received “informal adjustment” through Bexar County’s juvenile probation department instead of jail time. The following year, Esparza was arrested for attempting to steal a bicycle at knife point from a younger child. Though he was also arrested for criminal mischief, that charge was dismissed. 

Jurors learned that in 1980, Esparza was suspended from high school. One former classmate testified that Esparza was a bully, and described how Esparza broke out the window of his family’s car with a pipe and threatened to beat him up at school the next day. Another former schoolmate testified that Esparza strangled and tried to sexually assault her in the woods late one night when she was 13 years old, but that she was able to run away. 

Jurors also heard that in 1984, Esparza was convicted of assault causing bodily injury when he struck a man with a metal pipe and a baseball bat. The next year, Esparza was convicted and sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment for committing an aggravated sexual assault, wherein he beat the victim with a loaded gun and forced her at gunpoint to submit to intercourse with him. During his incarceration, Esparza “constantly” caused trouble, physically attacked other inmates, and was an active member in a prison gang. In May 1989, Esparza and three other inmates attacked another inmate, who the correctional officer believed would have been killed had he and other officers not intervened. 

While on parole for his aggravated sexual assault conviction, Esparza stole a car in May 1992 and conspired to steal the wheels off another car. Later, in May 1993, Esparza pled guilty to possession of cocaine and received an eight-year prison sentence. Esparza was paroled again in 1996, and was later cited for possessing narcotic paraphernalia, a Class C misdemeanor crime, in February 1998.
Finally, jurors learned that in 1999, following his completion of a mandatory sex offender treatment program, Esparza attempted to engage in sexual relations with a seven-year-old child who was staying at the same apartment for the night. Approximately two weeks later, Esparza sexually assaulted and fatally strangled a different seven-year-old girl – Alyssa Vasquez. 

Guadalupe Esparza

 

Diana Berlanga, whose 7-year-old daughter Alyssa Vasquez was raped and strangled to death in 1999, is shown at her home.

(Photo: Special To The Express-News, Jennifer Whitney / special to the Express-News)

Texas Execution Information Center by David Carson.
 
Guadalupe Esparza, 46, was executed by lethal injection on 16 November 2011 in Huntsville, Texas for the abduction, rape, and murder of a 7-year-old girl. 

On 6 June 1999 at about 11 p.m., Diana Berlanga went out for the evening, leaving her daughter, Alyssa Vasquez, and two sons, Joel and Aaron Vasquez, in the care of Robin Wellbrock, who she had recently taken in as a roommate. 

Moments after Berlanga left, Esparza, then 34, showed up. Berlanga and Esparza had seen each other socially for a few weeks, but Berlanga was friends with a woman whose sister, Connie Perez, knew Esparza as a teenager and warned her, "Stay away from him," so she had recently stopped taking his calls. Esparza came to Berlanga's west San Antonio apartment that Sunday night with three 32-ounce cans of beer to share with Berlanga and Wellbrock. Wellbrock took two of the beers and told Esparza to leave. 

Later, Wellbrock went next door to visit with a neighbor. Upon her return at about 2:30 a.m., she found the front door open and noted that the television had been turned off while she was gone. She also found the green shorts Alyssa had been wearing on the floor. As she searched for Alyssa, she heard a trash bin lid close outside. She looked out and saw someone who appeared to be Esparza running down the street. 

While Berlanga was still out, Alyssa's body was discovered in the tall grass behind a meat market near the apartments. She was naked from the waist down. Her legs were spread. Her face was swollen, scratched, and bruised. She had been raped and strangled. 

At about 4:00 a.m., police arrested Esparza at his residence, which was a mile and a half to two miles from Berlanga's apartment. They also collected a blood-spotted shirt and boxer shorts that were in a trash can outside. Esparza's DNA was matched to sperm found in the victim's mouth. Her DNA was also found under his fingernails. 

Esparza's criminal history extended back to his teens. At age 13, he and another boy were arrested for throwing a Molotov cocktail at a house. They were charged with attempted arson. The following year, Esparza was arrested for threatening a younger child with a knife while attempting to steal his bicycle. 

Connie Perez, the woman who passed a warning along to Berlanga to stay away from Esparza, testified that he tried to rape and strangle her in the woods when she was 13, but she managed to run away. At age 19, Esparza was convicted of assault causing bodily injury after he struck a man with a metal pipe and a baseball bat. 

In 1985, Esparza received a 12-year prison sentence for beating a woman with a gun and raping her. While in prison, he joined a gang. He and three other inmates attacked another inmate, who correctional officers testified would have been killed if not for their intervention. In July 1990, he was paroled as a result of Judge William Wayne Justice's orders to relieve overcrowding in Texas' prison system. 

In May 1992, while on parole, Esparza stole a car. A year later, he pleaded guilty to cocaine possession and was returned to prison with an 8-year sentence. He was paroled again in January 1996. 

At his trial, Esparza testified in his own behalf, against his attorneys' advice. He admitted that he was a registered sex offender at the time of the killing, but stated, "It was not with a child." When invited to elaborate by his attorney, he said, "I have nieces and nephews of my own and a 3-year daughter. I would never do that to a child, you know." 

In response to Esparza's testimony, the state called Manuel and Teresa Longoria to testify. Manuel testified that in late May 1999, about one or two weeks prior to Alyssa's murder, he and his 7-year-old daughter Teresa were staying overnight at the home of Manuel's brother and sister-in-law. Esparza came to the house in the middle of the night, looking for a place to stay because his girlfriend had kicked him out. Manuel's brother and sister-in-law agreed to let him spend the night. Manuel and Teresa slept on couches in the living room, while Esparza slept on a chair in the same room.
Teresa testified that she woke up in the middle of the night to find Esparza touching her on her stomach underneath her shirt. She ran to her cousin's room. Esparza followed her into the room, offered her a dollar bill, and told her to go into the bathroom with him. Teresa then ran into the living room and woke her father to tell him what happened. 

Manuel testified that he confronted Esparza, who replied, "I didn't do nothing. I don't know what you are talking about." The two men then began arguing and fighting, and Manuel's brother made Esparza leave the house. 

On rebuttal, Esparza claimed that Manuel and Teresa Longoria's allegations against him were false and were the result of "bad blood" between himself and Manuel. He stated that he was targeted as Alyssa's killer because he was a registered sex offender who lived nearby, who knew the victim's mother, and who just happened to have been at the victim's apartment on the night of her death. He claimed that the witnesses who testified against him were participants in a conspiracy organized by the district attorney's office, and he contested the accuracy and conclusiveness of the DNA evidence against him. 

A jury convicted Esparza of capital murder in March 2001 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in June 2003. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied. Robin Wellbrock, the babysitter, died of a heart attack in 2004. 

Esparza maintained his innocence in an interview from Death Row. He admitted that he went to the victim's apartment hoping to see her mother, but left when she wasn't there. "Diana wasn't there, and Robin told me she didn't want me there," he said, "So I went to a bar like, a mile away, Barton's Boozery." Esparza said while at the bar, he got into a fight and cut his hand on a bottle. He left at 2 a.m. and walked home. He threw away his clothes, which were bloodied from the cut, and crawled into bed with his girlfriend. "I wasn't there when she died, ma'am," he told the reporter. "I have a daughter. I always wanted to be a father. I'm not capable of doing anything like this." 

Diana Berlanga, Joel Vasquez, and other members of Alyssa's family attended Esparza's execution. Esparza placed three of his siblings on his witness list, but they did not show up. Two of his friends were present. "To the family of Alyssa Vasquez, I hope you will find peace in your heart," Esparza said in his last statement. "My sympathy goes out to you. I hope you find it in your heart to forgive me. I don't know why all of this happened." The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.