Texas is preparing the final details on the execution of José Luis Villegas on Wednesday, April 16, after a local court rejected his last appeal in which his defense said the accused suffered from mental handicaps.
According to Reuters, 39-year-old Villegas was accused in Jan. 2001 of stabbing his girlfriend, Erida Pérez Salazar, her mother, Alma Pérez and Erida's son, Jacob, three years old.
The accused confessed that on the day of the murders he had consumed $200 worth of cocaine with his girlfriend Erida, 24, in her parent's house. At some point in the afternoon, Alma Pérez, 50, asked Villegas to leave, and he proceeded to stab the woman repeatedly with a kitchen knife.
After murdering his mother-in-law, Villegas went to the bedroom and stabbed his girlfriend and her son. After the murders, Villegas stole a TV and Alma Pérez' car and tried to get more cocaine before he was arrested by the police hours later, according to MSN News.
The same source quotes court documents in which Villegas confessed he returned to the crime scene in an attempt to kill himself with a cocaine overdose; however, when he noticed the police he attempted to escape and was arrested.
In 2002, Villegas was sentenced to death and last week a district court refused to postpone his execution.
According to Reuters, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice reported that José Luis Villegas Jr's execution with a lethal injection is programmed for 6 p.m. CST in Huntsville.
Villegas will become the seventh person to be executed in Texas this year and the third Latino.
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