Davis Losada

Case record: Davis Losada

Outcome

Davis Losada was executed by lethal injection in Texas on June 4, 1997.

Davis Losada was convicted along with three co-defendants in the rape and murder of 15-year-old Olga Perales near San Benito. Perales was stabbed twice in the chest and abdomen and beaten around the head with a pipe. She had been raped repeatedly before her death.

Davis Losada’s last statement was: “Yes, I do. If it matters to anyone, I did not kill Olga. Brian, thank you for caring. Dee Dee, you have been a good sister to all of us. Ana and Chico ( not sure of name he said ), trust in God. I will always love you, Lynn. I will always love you. O.K., Warden.”

Timeline

• December 23, 1984 — Four teenage males savagely took the life of 15-year-old Olga Lydia Perales from San Benito, Texas after they brutally raped and murdered her.
• Christmas Eve (year not stated) — Perales’s naked body was found in a brushy area between San Benito and Harlingen, Texas with two stab wounds to the chest.
• Early January 1985 (reported as early January 1985) — Rafael Leyva Jr., 17, confessed to his involvement in Perales’s murder to his parole officer for fear of conviction.
• January 13, 1985 — With the information from Leyva, Davis Losada was arrested.
• April 2, 1985 — Jose Luis Peña was Leyva’s first attorney appointed by 197th District Judge Darrell Hester at Leyva’s arraignment.
• June 14, 1985 — Losada’s trial began.
• June 18, 1985 — Losada’s trial lasted through this date.
• June 19, 1985 — In less than an hour, Losada, 20, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.
• October 1986 — Losada’s first appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas was heard.
• May 1, 1996 — Losada’s last appeal to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was decided with denial.
• May 1994 — Peña was disbarred on charges unrelated to Losada’s case.
• Wednesday, June 4, 1997 — Losada was executed just over an hour after convicted murderer Dorsie Johnson-Bey; Losada was pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m.
• 1935 (year referenced) — Texas’s record of executions in a single year set in 1935 was equaled by Losada’s death being the twentieth execution in Texas in 1997.

The offence

On the night in question, a party attended by the deceased was held at Ray Amaya’s house in San Benito.

Cardenas, Losada and Jesus Romero approached Rafael Leyva Jr. in downtown San Benito in Cardenas’ car and invited him to go to a party with them. Prior to arrival at Amaya’s house, they went “cruising” for about an hour during which time all of them were drinking beer and smoking marijuana. Upon arrival, it was discovered that the party had broken up and only Amaya and the deceased were present.

Leyva testified that the deceased came out and “started going to the car slowly ... all of a sudden Jesse [Romero] pushed the girl [the deceased] inside the car.”

Leyva testified that Cardenas was in the driver’s seat and [Romero] pushed the deceased into the passenger side of the front seat. Leyva testified: “Jesse [Romero] was holding the girl’s head down.... He was holding it with the right hand on her head pushing to her knees ... he was telling her just to keep quiet.” Leyva testified that during the drive to a place beside the lake called La Piedra, [Romero] was holding the deceased’s head down and telling her to be quiet. The deceased was asking to “leave her alone” and “take her home.”

Leyva testified that Davis Losada first had sex with the deceased. Leyva testified Davis put “a knife to her neck ... and she got on ‘four’ giving Davis a blow job ... the girl was saying to take her home and just to leave her alone and Davis was telling her to shut up and if she didn’t shut up something was going to happen to her, and the girl was kind of like weeping ...”

Leyva testified that [Romero] “unzipped his pants and got inside the car while the girl was on ‘four,’ and still gave Davis the blow job, he got in through the back and started having sex with her.” After [Romero] finished, Leyva testified: “started having sex with her in the back.”

Leyva testified that the deceased continued to ask to be taken home and Cardenas removed a pipe from the car that “looked like a baseball bat.” A discussion ensued about whether the deceased would tell anyone, and the deceased insisted that she would keep quiet and say nothing. Leyva testified: “Leyva testified that he told the others that she would keep quiet and they kept telling him ‘That’s no good. She’s going to say something and we are going to get in trouble.’”

Leyva testified that Cardenas handed Leyva the pipe and Leyva hit the girl on the forehead with the pipe. Leyva testified the deceased did not fall down and [Romero] “grabbed the pipe out of Leyva’s hand and ‘started hitting the girl ... he was hitting her head with both hands on the pipe.’”

Leyva testified that the deceased fell to the ground after [Romero] hit her the second time and after she fell to the ground Romero hit her “three or four or five times at the most.” Leyva testified that the girl stopped making noise after [Romero] “finished hitting her.” Leyva testified that someone else hit her “three or four times.”

Leyva testified that he then observed Cardenas hitting the girl “with both hands on the pipe” and that “Jesse [Romero] was giggling while he was hitting the girl.”

Leyva testified that Losada told him to “grab the girl.” Leyva testified that Losada and [Romero] “both came at me with knives.”

Leyva testified that [Romero] then observed the girl move and Losada said “Just to make sure she’s dead, I’ll stab her.”

Leyva testified that Losada again told Leyva to drag the girl into the bushes and that after dragging her “halfway,” Davis told [Romero] “to give me a hand” and “my [sic] and Jesse [Romero] dragged the girl way back in the bushes.”

Leyva testified that [Romero] with a knife in his hand told Leyva “Stab her or I’ll stab you.” Leyva testified he stabbed the girl “from the waist to her chest” and gave the knife back to [Romero].

Leyva testified that Leyva and his three companions returned to the car and they left the scene and Losada said, “We all did it, you know. Everybody had a part in it.” Leyva testified that Losada threw the knife “into some canal.”

Leyva testified that [Romero] then handed his knife to Losada so he could throw it out. Leyva testified that Cardenas stopped on a bridge and Losada threw the girl’s clothes out. Leyva testified that Losada instructed him to not tell anyone that they were together. Leyva testified that the remaining three were going to say “all we know is that we dropped the girl off at the Azteca.” Leyva testified that Losada warned Leyva: “Just keep your mouth shut and if you don’t the same thing is going to happen to you.”

Investigation

Autopsies reported that the two stab wounds, one that Losada was proven to have inflicted, did not cause Perales to die, but did show intent to kill her.

Perales’s wet clothes were found in a river near where she was murdered. The knife and table leg used to beat and stab her were found in the wooded area near her body.

Arrest and pre-trial matters

In early January 1985, Rafael Leyva Jr., 17, confessed to his involvement in Perales’s murder to his parole officer for fear of conviction. Leyva’s juvenile attorney at the time, Horatio Barrera, negotiated a plea bargain for him. In return for testimony against the other three, Leyva would serve only 20 years on charges of aggravated sexual assault.

With this information, Losada was arrested on Jan. 13, 1985.

The lead trial prosecutor in Losada’s case was Mervyn Mosbacker. Mosbacker said police suspected Losada was involved in Perales’s murder but could not have cracked the case without Leyva’s testimony.

Jose Luis Peña was Leyva’s first attorney appointed by 197th District Judge Darrell Hester at Leyva’s arraignment April 2, 1985. A week later, Peña was switched from representing Leyva to representing Losada.

In a statement of facts from Peña in August of that same year, he wrote that he was switched to represent Losada because the court was going to keep Barrera to be Leyva’s adult felony attorney. Hester knew Peña had already conversed with Leyva about events of the murder and who was involved, and proceeded to have Peña represent Losada.

Joseph Connors III was one of Losada’s appeals attorneys. Connors said Losada was kept on the case because he was a new attorney and was already familiar with the details of the case. Connors said Pena never voiced that his representing Losada was a conflict of interest due to having represented Leyva beforehand and having received information of Losada’s involvement from Leyva.

Connors said that Peña believed attorney-client privilege lasted until the client’s death and it was not until after Connors was Losada’s appeals attorney that Peña disclosed information that said he was not able to fairly represent Losada.

Peña’s statement of facts included the following quotations:

“I told attorney Connors that I felt my attorney-client relationship with Rafael Leyva no longer existed since I am not an attorney anymore,” Pena wrote in his statement of facts. “My representation of Rafael Leyva was brief but detrimental to the petitioner [Losada]. Should another trial be set, I would assure a different and favorable result for the petitioner.”

Peña was disbarred May 1994 on charges unrelated to Losada’s case.

Trial

Losada’s trial began on June 14, 1985 and lasted through June 18, 1985. Losada did not testify on his own behalf.

In less than an hour, on June 19, 1985, Losada, 20, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.

Evidence and confessions

[Romero] made a written confession, and the following portions were admitted into evidence:

The party started to break up around 11:00 or 11:30 p.m. We left in Joe’s [Cardenas] car. Joe was driving. Davis [Losada] and Rafa [Leyva] were in the back seat. We drove out to what is known as La Piedra and drove down a narrow road from a bigger road for approximately one city block in distance. Davis, with the knife in one hand, forced [deceased] to make out with him, Rafa made out with her, then Joe made out with her. Davis got a pipe and started hitting [deceased] about the head. Rafa hit her also. Joe did hit her. Afterwards, [deceased] was laying there and Davis stabbed her. After Davis stabbed her Rafa got a hold of one leg and I got a hold of the other leg and we pulled her into the bushes. I don’t know what happened to the pipe and didn’t see it anymore when we left the area. When we left the area Joe was driving. Rafa and I were in the back seat, and Davis was in the front passenger side. As we traveled down a dirt road, Davis got rid of the knife that was used to stab [deceased] and also got rid of another knife. He did this by throwing the knives out the window. We then traveled some more and we then stopped on a small bridge that goes over a drainage ditch there by the overpass that is close to the Valley Buick Company located just southeast of San Benito. When we stopped there Davis gave Rafa some other items and Rafa threw those out in the drainage ditch also. Rafa was dropped off first by the Bertha Cavazos School. “I have been shown two photos by Investigator Joe Alvarado of the District Attorney’s Office and I have identified both pictures as being # 1, that of [deceased], the way we left her that night there in the bushes. Photo # 2 is the way we left [deceased] after Rafa and I dragged her into the bushes. I have initialed, dated, and placed the time on both photos.”

A search of [Romero]’s residence resulted in the recovery of a man’s “blooded underwear” at the bottom of a garbage bag. Raul Guajardo, a chemist with the Department of Public Safety, testified his analysis revealed that human blood was on the sides of the underwear. The findings were consistent with either Type A or Type AB. Blood samples from the deceased and [Romero] were both type A. Blood samples of the three codefendants showed all of them to be type O.

Appeals

Losada’s first appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas was heard in October 1986. His death sentence was not revoked.

Losada appealed his death sentence several time. The last appeal was to the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 1, 1996, and Losada was denied on all accounts.

Sentencing

On June 19, 1985, Losada, 20, was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death.

Aftermath

Texas’s first double execution in 21 and a half years occurred Wednesday, June 4, 1997 when Losada was executed just over an hour after convicted murderer Dorsie Johnson-Bey. Both were executed by injection.

Losada, 32, declined his last meal. He was pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m. with five of his relatives looking on.

In a brief statement, Losada thanked his sister for being, “a good sister to all of us.” He urged his family to trust in God and proclaimed, “If it matters to anyone, I did not kill Olga.”