Ramon Torres Hernandez

Case details

Ramon Torres Hernandez was convicted in Bexar County, Texas, and sentenced to death for the capital murder of a 37-year-old Hispanic female, Rosa Maria Rosado.

Background

Ramon Torres Hernandez was Hispanic and male. He was 41 at the time of execution. His hair color was black and his eye color was hazel. He was 5' 9" and weighed 163.

Hernandez had a prior prison record: #581951 on an 18-year sentence for 3 counts of Burglary of a Habitation with Intent to Commit Theft. One occasion involved Hernandez entering a residence and forcing a 21-year-old Hispanic female into intercourse; injuries were involved. He was released to parole on 06/11/1993.

During the present case, while housed in the Bexar County jail for the offense, Hernandez placed a make-shift dummy in his bunk and went missing from his cell. He was later found hiding in another cell where sheriff’s deputies discovered a carved-out hole through cinder block and bricks leading to the parking lot of the facility. Hernandez had also attempted to carve around the commode, and ventilation and intercom systems in his own cell. A piece of steel plate from the intercom system, big enough to be a weapon, was missing. Hernandez made the statement: “I fooled you too, right."

The offence

Capital murder indictment and theories

Hernandez was indicted on one count encompassing several crimes, including killing Rosa Rosado:

• as part of a common scheme or course of conduct along with killing two middle school girls in 1994,
• in the course of an aggravated sexual assault,
• in the course of kidnaping her, and
• in the course of robbing her.

The facts were in dispute, but Hernandez’s confession described the abduction and killing as follows. While driving with his girlfriend, Abel Abdygapparova, Hernandez, and Santos Minjarez saw Rosado at a bus stop. Minjarez tried to grab her purse, and when she resisted, he pulled her into the car and covered her head, and Hernandez drove away. They stopped at Hernandez’s house to get tape to bind Rosado, gagged her, and went to a motel, where she was raped and killed. Abdygapparova was sent to get a shovel, which was used to bury the body. Hernandez and Abdygapparova took Rosado’s possessions and items used to cover her and burned them or dispersed them by tossing them from the car as they drove after her death. Rosado’s body was later transported to a wooded area and buried in a shallow grave.

Hernandez initially denied participating and asked for an attorney, thus ending his first interrogation. The next day he asked to speak to the detectives again. He gave a statement confessing to participation in the crime but saying it was Minjarez who had raped and killed Rosado.

Common-scheme murders in 1994

Relating to the common-scheme aspect of the one-count indictment, two middle school girls, Sarah Gonzales and Priscilla Almares, were abducted in San Antonio in December 1994. The next day, their bodies were found in the brush by a road. Both had been sexually assaulted and asphyxiated.

An anal swab of Gonzales found sperm, but a vaginal slide found none. A 2001 test showed Hernandez’s DNA was a match.

2001 Rosado disappearance and killing

Relating to the remaining parts of the indictment, Rosado disappeared in San Antonio in March 2001. Hernandez’s confession described the abduction at a bus stop and the subsequent events at Hernandez’s house and at a motel, where Rosado was raped and killed.

Treatment of evidence and location details

Rosado’s body was buried in a shallow grave near the University of Texas-San Antonio campus. During the ordeal, Abdygapparova was sent to a nearby store to buy a shovel. Abdygapparova was five months pregnant with Hernandez’s child at the time of the killing.

Abdygapparova led police to the body, the motel where the events occurred, and the car she had sold after using it in the crime.

Rosado’s body was found in a shallow grave.

Investigation and arrest

Two crucial statements were made to police:

• Abdygapparova provided a written statement of the abduction, robbery, sexual assault, and murder of Rosado. She also led police to the body, the motel where the events occurred, and the car she had sold after using it in the crime.
• Although Hernandez initially denied participating and asked for an attorney, the next day he asked to speak to the detectives again and gave a statement confessing to participation but saying it was Minjarez who had raped and killed Rosado.

Hernandez was tied to the crime in part through a shovel that he sent Abdygapparova to buy to bury Rosado, and through DNA evidence linking him to the 1994 sexual assaults and slayings of Sarah Gonzales and Priscilla Almares.

Trial

Charges and procedural posture

On March 12, 2002, Hernandez was charged in a four-paragraph indictment filed in the 175th District Court of Bexar County, Texas. The indictment charged:

• intentionally killing Rosa Rosado on March 31, 2001, by asphyxiation, during the course of committing or attempting to commit the aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping, or robbery of Rosado;
• and the murder of more than one person during different criminal transactions but pursuant to the same scheme and course of conduct, for the murder of Rosado, and the December 16, 1994, murders of Priscilla Almares and Sarah Gonzalez.

Hernandez was convicted and sentenced to death in October 2002 by a jury in the 175th District Court of Bexar County, Texas.

Prior criminal history presented at punishment phase

During the penalty phase, the State presented evidence that in 1986 Hernandez (who was a juvenile) was charged with engaging in delinquent conduct for entering a habitation on April 5, 1986, with the intent to commit theft, and was placed on juvenile probation for a year.

On July 18, 1990, Hernandez was convicted of unlawfully carrying a weapon—a knife with a blade of more than five inches. The charges stemmed from his arrest for felony theft of a vehicle and unlawfully carrying a prohibited weapon, but the felony charge was dismissed.

In March 1991, Hernandez pled guilty to three counts of burglary of a habitation with intent to commit theft, and was sentenced to 18 years in prison. The first burglary occurred on April 24, 1990, when Hernandez entered a home through a kitchen window while the owner was at work and stole numerous items from the home. The second burglary also occurred on April 24, 1990, when Hernandez and an accomplice broke down the door of a home; while Hernandez and the accomplice were attempting to rob the home, a neighbor called the police. Hernandez and the accomplice fled on foot but were later apprehended with items from the burglaries in their car. The third burglary plea resulted from the January 12, 1991, sexual assault of Anna Marie Diaz. Hernandez, Minjares, and Diaz’s husband, Danny Zapata, went to Hernandez’s apartment to watch a pornographic movie. Hernandez left the apartment, locking the burglar door from the outside so that no one could leave. Hernandez entered Diaz’s nearby apartment through an unlocked door and sexually assaulted her in her bed while her one-year-old child slept beside her. Diaz testified that she and Hernandez had been friends for many years. Hernandez only pleaded guilty to burglary of a habitation.

On March 15, 1994, Hernandez was arrested and charged with burglary after he and Santos Minjares were observed robbing a home. Hernandez led police on high-speed pursuit, ending when he crashed his car in a drainage ditch. The two suspects attempted to flee on foot but Hernandez was apprehended. The charges were dismissed for insufficient evidence. Two witnesses—a high school friend and a San Antonio police officer—testified Hernandez did not have a good reputation for being peaceful and law-abiding.

Trial testimony and dispute notes

Jurors at his 2002 capital murder trial learned Hernandez was linked by DNA to the 1994 sexual assaults and slayings of Sarah Gonzales and Priscilla Almares.

The facts are in dispute, but Hernandez’s confession provided the narrative described regarding Rosado.

Sentencing

A Bexar County jury convicted Hernandez in October 2002 and sentenced him to death. His execution was scheduled for after 6 p.m. on November 14, 2012 by a court order by the 175th District Court in Bexar County, Texas.

Appeals

Direct appeal

On March 23, 2005, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) affirmed his conviction and sentence on direct appeal.

State habeas

On September 10, 2008, after the trial court held an evidentiary hearing, the CCA adopted all recommended findings and conclusions save those regarding the ineffective-assistance-of-appellate-counsel claim, and denied habeas corpus relief.

Federal habeas and COA

On May 13, 2011, the federal district court denied habeas corpus relief and a certificate of appealability (COA). On March 1, 2012, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals also denied COA.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari review on October 1, 2012.

Outcome

Ramon Torres Hernandez was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6:38 p.m. local time at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas, on November 14, 2012.

His final statement included these words:

• Hernandez said: “I'm sorry for putting you through all of this. Tell everyone I love them,”
• Hernandez also said: “To everybody back on the row, I know you're going through a lot over there. Keep fighting, don't give up, everybody,”
• Hernandez said to his brother: “Did I ever tell you, you have dad's eyes? I have noticed that in the last couple of days,”
• Tell everyone I love them. It was good seeing the kids. I love them all, tell mom, everybody. I am very sorry for all the pain.”
• Another final statement attributed to Hernandez was: “I'm very sorry for all the pain.”
• Hernandez also said: “keep fighting; don't give up.”

Aftermath

Co-defendants included:

• Santos Minjarez, who was sentenced to death but died in January 2012 of septic shock and multiple organ failure.
• Asel Abdygapparova, who was sentenced to life in prison and was eligible for parole in 2045 in one account; her sentence was overturned in 2007, and she remained in Bexar County Jail awaiting a new trial in another account.

Family members witnessed the execution:

• Priscilla’s sister Brenda Ayala had tears in her eyes as Hernandez spoke his last words.
• Brenda Ayala said: “We're not cruel people; we don't want to have to watch somebody die,”
• Brenda Ayala also said: “It doesn't give us happiness at all. If anything I felt sorrow for his family. They'll have to feel what we felt when we lost our loved ones.”

Hernandez was the 14th inmate executed in Texas in one account and the 39th execution in Texas in another account.