Jose Santellan, Sr.

Executed April 10, 2002 by Lethal Injection in Texas


19th murderer executed in U.S. in 2002
768st murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
7th murderer executed in Texas in 2002
263rd murderer executed in Texas since 1976


Since 1976
Date of Execution
State
Method
Murderer
(Race/Sex/Age at Murder-Execution)
Date of
Birth
Victim(s)
(Race/Sex/Age at Murder)
Date of
Murder
Method of
Murder
Relationship
to Murderer
Date of
Sentence
768
04-10-02
TX
Lethal Injection
Jose Santellan, Sr.

H / M / 31 - 40

03-08-62
Yolanda Garza

H / F / 31

08-22-93
Handgun
Girlfriend
Received
at DOC
03-14-95

Summary:
In 1993, Santellan confronted his former girlfriend, Yolanda Garza, in the parking lot as she left her job as a nurse assistant. Witnesses watched as Santellan shot Garza with a pistol, carried her body into his car, then left. Santellan later confessed that he absconded with Yolanda because he "just wanted to get away and be with her and spend some time together." Santellan stopped at motel, carried Yolanda's body into the motel room and engaged in various sex acts with the corpse. He poured perfume on the body to alleviate the growing stench of decomposition. Santellan also drafted several letters to family members, asking their forgiveness for the murder. Yolanda had earlier written a resignation letter to the hospital indicating an intent to move due to a "domestic problem endangering my welfare and possibly that of my children."

Citations:
Santellan v. State, 939 S.W.2d 155 (Tex.Crim.App. 1997) (Direct Appeal).
Santellan v. Cockrell, 271 F.3d 190 (5th Cir. 2001).

Final Meal:
12 pieces of fried chicken, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, 2 rolls with butter, 2 Pepsi, 1 pint of strawberry ice cream, and 1 pint of vanilla ice cream.

Final Words:
"I hope and pray they can forgive me. I loved Yolanda a lot. Even though they're not here, I hope they will read my words." In a voice choked with emotion, Santellan told his relatives, watching from a nearby room, that he loved them all and thanked them for his support. As they cried, he told them he would be all right. "To the guys on death row, stay strong. I hope to see you someday."

Internet Sources:

Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Executed Offenders (Jose Santellan)

Texas Attorney General Media Advisory

MEDIA ADVISORY - Jose Santellan, Sr. Scheduled to be Executed.

AUSTIN - Texas Attorney General John Cornyn offers the following information on Jose Santellan, Sr., who is scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10, 2002. On March 10, 1995, Jose Santellan, Sr., was sentenced for the capital murder of Yolanda Garza, which occurred in Fredericksburg, Texas, on Aug. 22, 1993. A summary of the evidence presented at trial follows:

FACTS OF THE CRIME

On Aug. 22, 1993, Santellan confronted his former girlfriend, Yolanda Garza, as she left her job as a nurse assistant at the Hill Country Memorial Hospital in Fredericksburg, Texas. Garza was walking through the parking lot with Norma Hoffman, a co-worker. As the two women parted, Santellan approached Garza as she was walking toward her car. She changed directions and walked with Santellan. Hoffman watched Garza and Santellan talking, but at a distance of 70 feet, she could not understand what was being said or whether the two were arguing. When Hoffman last saw her standing, Yolanda was about five feet from Santellan and about 20 feet from where she had first encountered him.

Hoffman heard Garza scream, "Think of my kids!" She saw Santellan standing over Garza's body with his pistol drawn. Hoffman heard two shots and saw Santellan shake his gun as if to dislodge a jam, but she acknowledged that other shots might have been fired before she took notice. Hoffman left in her vehicle to go get help.

A second eyewitness, hospital housekeeper Guadalupe Noriega, entered the parking lot and saw Garza bleeding and motionless. Noriega rushed back into the hospital to seek help. When she returned to the parking lot, Noriega saw Santellan's car parked next to Garza as he loaded her into the passenger seat, grabbed her backpack and drove away.

Santellan later confessed that he absconded with Garza because he "just wanted to get away and be with her and spend some time together." Santellan drove west for several hours before checking into a motel in Camp Wood, Texas. He carried Garza's body into the hotel room and engaged in various sex acts with the corpse. He poured perfume on the body to alleviate the growing stench of decomposition. Santellan also drafted several letters to family members, asking their forgiveness for the murder. The police found and arrested Santellan at the motel on August 24. Santellan confessed voluntarily.

Additional evidence at trial indicated that Santellan and Garza had been in a relationship but had a "big fight" in July 1993. Subsequently, Garza had written a resignation letter to the hospital indicating an intent to move due to a "domestic problem endangering my welfare and possibly that of my children." April 26, 1994 - A grand jury indicted Santellan in the 216th Judicial District Court of Gillespie County, Texas, for the capital offense of murdering Yolanda Garza while in the course of attempting to commit kidnapping.

March 8, 1995 - Although Santellan entered a plea of not guilty, a jury found him guilty of capital murder. January 29, 1997 - His conviction and sentence were automatically appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which affirmed in a published opinion.

February 17, 1997 - Santellan filed an application for writ of habeas corpus in the trial court.

October 7, 1997 - The trial court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law recommending the denial of habeas relief.

March 18, 1998 - The Court of Criminal Appeals adopted the findings and conclusions and denied habeas relief in an unpublished order.

August, 13, 1998 - The trial court set Santellan's execution for Dec. 8, 1998.

September 18, 1998 - The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, stayed Santellan's execution.

December 1, 1998 - Santellan filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in the federal district court.

March 10, 2000 - The federal district court partially granted habeas relief and ordered a new trial.

March 15, 2000 - The Attorney General of Texas appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

October 17, 2001 - The Fifth Circuit reversed the district court and denied habeas relief in a published opinion.

November 14, 2001 - The Fifth Circuit denied Santellan's petition for rehearing.

January 11, 2002 - The trial court set Santellan's execution for April 10, 2002.

February 12, 2002 - Santellan filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court.

February 13, 2002 - The federal district court stayed Santellan's execution.

March 15, 2002 - The Fifth Circuit vacated the district court's stay of execution.

March 25, 2002 - Santellan filed a second certiorari petition in the Supreme Court, which is pending.

PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY

The evidence at Santellan's trial revealed a long history of criminal violence: In March 1987, Santellan received five years probation for burglary; In July 1987, Santellan's probation was revoked after he was convicted of assault for beating up another man. He was sentenced to two years in TDCJ and paroled a year later; In September 1988, a month after Santellan was paroled, he was arrested for criminal trespass; this incident involved a verbal altercation with his girlfriend; A little over a month later, Santellan was arrested for assault and resisting arrest; In April 1989, he was returned to TDCJ without new charges due to his trespass, assault and resisting arrest. He was released to mandatory supervision in May 1989 and discharged in July 1990; After he moved to Fredricksburg and then to Michigan, Santellan was arrested for shoplifting a pack of cigarettes in November 1990; A few days later Santellan was arrested for breaking and entering, assault with a dangerous weapon and carrying a concealed weapon; While in jail, Santellan broke a window and was charged with malicious destruction of police property; Santellan was also involved in a violent escape attempt. In July 1991, he was convicted of escaping from jail through violence, assault of a prison employee and assault with a deadly weapon, and sentenced to 2-4 years in Michigan state prison. He was paroled in 1992 and moved to Texas.

In November 1993, while being held pending his capital murder trial, Santellan assaulted a jailer, punching him in the face and ribs and stomping on his glasses; In October 1999, Santellan attacked a male and female TDCJ guard. He was later convicted of two counts of assault of a public servant; While awaiting trial, Santellan set his cell on fire and then assaulted the correctional officers who attempted to rescue him from the burning cell; Santellan threatened and assaulted several correctional officers by throwing his urine and brandishing a broken mop handle; Santellan smashed the television in his cell and threatened officers with the jagged shards of glass; In addition to these criminal offenses, TDCJ reports additional attacks on guards as well as on inmates. Santellan also admits to choking a girlfriend in 1986 and robbing a Uvalde store at gunpoint while on the run after the murder.

ProDeathPenalty.com

On Aug. 22, 1993, Jose Santellan confronted his former girlfriend, Yolanda Garza, as she left her job as a nurse assistant at the Hill Country Memorial Hospital in Fredericksburg, Texas. Yolanda was walking through the parking lot with a co-worker. As the two women parted, Santellan approached Yolanda as she was walking toward her car. She changed directions and walked with Santellan. The witness watched Yolanda and Santellan talking, but at a distance of 70 feet, she could not understand what was being said or whether the two were arguing. When the witness last saw her standing, Yolanda was about five feet from Santellan and about 20 feet from where she had first encountered him. The witness heard Yolanda scream, "Think of my kids!" She saw Santellan standing over Yolanda's body with his pistol drawn. She heard two shots and saw Santellan shake his gun as if to dislodge a jam, but she acknowledged that other shots might have been fired before she took notice. The witness left in her vehicle to go get help. A second eyewitness, a hospital housekeeper, entered the parking lot and saw Yolanda bleeding and motionless. This witness rushed back into the hospital to seek help. When she returned to the parking lot, she saw Santellan's car parked next to Yolanda as he loaded her into the passenger seat, grabbed her backpack and drove away. Santellan later confessed that he absconded with Yolanda because he "just wanted to get away and be with her and spend some time together." Santellan drove west for several hours before checking into a motel in Camp Wood, Texas. He carried Yolanda's body into the hotel room and engaged in various sex acts with the corpse. He poured perfume on the body to alleviate the growing stench of decomposition. Santellan also drafted several letters to family members, asking their forgiveness for the murder. The police found and arrested Santellan at the motel on August 24. Santellan confessed voluntarily. Additional evidence at trial indicated that Santellan and Yolanda had been in a relationship but had a "big fight" in July 1993. Subsequently, Yolanda had written a resignation letter to the hospital indicating an intent to move due to a "domestic problem endangering my welfare and possibly that of my children."

ABOLISH Archives (Associated Press)

TEXAS: A federal judge has overturned the capital murder conviction of a Fredricksburg man in the 1993 death of his ex-girlfriend, saying the crime involved murder but not kidnapping.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks ordered a new trial for murder within 180 days for Jose Santellan Sr., 38, who was sentenced to die for killing 31-year-old Yolanda Garza in August 1993. Santellan will not be released pending a possible new trial. He is also serving a life sentence for aggravated assault in a separate incident.

Sparks ruled that the evidence presented at Santellan's trial showed he killed Garza, but not that he kidnapped her 1st. Generally, to receive the death penalty in Texas, a person must have killed someone during the process of committing another felony. "The court finds that, considering the evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict, no rational jury could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that the petitioner attempted to abduct or restrain the victim by use of deadly force," Sparks wrote.

According to trial testimony, Garza was dead before any abduction occurred. Santellan admitted killing Garza. Prosecutors said the woman was completing her shift as a nurse's aide at Hill Country Memorial Hospital in Fredricksburg when Santellan approached her in the parking lot. As they walked toward her car, Santellan shot her 4 times, including in the head and chest. He then put her body in his truck, drove to a Camp Wood hotel and had sex with the corpse.

Attorney General John Cornyn has appealed Sparks' decision to the U.S. 5th Court of Criminal Appeals.

Santellan v. Cockrell, 271 F.3d 190 (5th Cir. 2001).

The district court granted a writ of habeas corpus to Jose Santellan, a death-sentenced Texas prisoner, after it concluded that no rational jury could find that he murdered his ex-girlfriend while in the course of attempted kidnapping. The federal court also concluded that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Santellan's conviction on a factual basis sufficiently different from that espoused by the state at trial as to deny due process. Based on the appropriately deferential (AEDPA) standard of review of the state court's decision, we hold that the state court did not unreasonably apply clearly established federal law and reverse the district court's judgment. We also reject Santellan's cross-appeal urging an ineffective assistance of counsel claim.

On the afternoon of August 22, 1993, Santellan confronted his former girlfriend, Yolanda Garza, as she left work at the Hill Country Memorial Hospital in Fredericksburg, Texas. Garza had been walking through the parking lot with a co-worker, Norma Hoffman. As the two women parted, Santellan approached Garza; he might have emerged from behind some dumpsters or a wall at the end of the parking lot. Garza veered from her previous course along with Santellan and walked away from her automobile. Hoffman watched Garza and Santellan talking, but at a distance of 70 feet, she could not understand what was being said or whether the two were arguing. The last time Hoffman saw Yolanda standing, she was about five feet from Santellan and about 20 feet from where she had met him.

Garza suddenly screamed, "Think of my kids!" Santellan was now standing over her with his pistol drawn. Hoffman heard two shots and saw Santellan shake his gun as if to dislodge a jam, but she acknowledged that other shots might have been fired before she took notice. Santellan continued to stand over Yolanda's body. At about this time, a second eye-witness, hospital house-keeper Guadalupe Noriega, entered the parking lot. She saw Garza bleeding and motionless and rushed back into the hospital to seek help. Returning to the parking lot, Noriega saw Santellan's car parked next to the victim as he loaded her into the passenger seat, put in her backpack and drove away.

Santellan later confessed that he absconded with Garza's dying body because he "just wanted to get away and be with her and spend some time together." Santellan drove west for several hours before checking into a motel in Camp Wood, Texas. He carried Garza's body into the hotel room. During the next night and day, Santellan engaged in various sex acts with the corpse. He poured perfume on the body to alleviate the growing stench of decomposition. He also drafted several letters to family members, asking their forgiveness for the murder. The police found and arrested Santellan at the motel on August 24th. Santellan confessed voluntarily.

In April 1994, Santellan was indicted for the capital murder of Yolanda Garza while *192 in the course of attempting to kidnap her. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to death a year later. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction. Santellan v. Texas, 939 S.W.2d 155 (Tex.Crim.App.1997). Santellan then unsuccessfully sought habeas corpus relief in state court. His quest for habeas relief prevailed, however, in the federal district court. The district court found the evidence constitutionally insufficient to support a conviction for murder in the course of attempted kidnapping, and it refused to defer to the state court's decisions. The federal court first rejected the state's principal theory of the crime, as it concluded that, "No rational jury could have found beyond a reasonable doubt that [Santellan] attempted to abduct or restrain the victim by use of deadly force when he approached the victim in the parking lot." Second, the federal court held that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals unreasonably affirmed the conviction on a factual and legal basis that the state had "disavowed" before the jury; the court considered this alleged modification of the basis for the verdict to violate Santellan's due process rights. Finally, while the court agreed with Santellan that his attorney rendered unconstitutionally deficient performance by not investigating the petitioner's possible organic brain damage, it found that this error did not prejudice Santellan.