Jessy San Miguel

Case information

Name: Jessy San Miguel (also referred to as Jessy Carlos San Miguel) Status: Executed by lethal injection in Texas on June 29, 2000

Background

Jessy San Miguel had a history of altercations and violence during his school years. During the punishment phase, multiple students testified about incidents involving San Miguel.

A student who went to school with San Miguel testified that San Miguel was on crutches when San Miguel threatened him with a knife and then later knocked him out with a punch, breaking some teeth. The student testified that San Miguel thought the student had slighted San Miguel's girlfriend.

Another student testified about one night when he went to a location where San Miguel and another student were supposed to have a fight. When the other student did not show up, the testifying student attempted to start a fight with San Miguel. The student testified that San Miguel pulled out a pistol and shot him in the stomach.

A third student, Mitchell McDearman, was another friend of San Miguel's in school. He testified that he saw San Miguel in 18 fights, mostly started by San Miguel. He also testified to seeing San Miguel shoot the student in the stomach.

A fourth student testified that he was at a party sitting next to San Miguel's wife and another girl when San Miguel grabbed him, shook him, asked what he was doing messing around with his wife, and threatened to kill him. The student testified that when he got home, he found nine or 10 bullet holes in the wall of his bedroom.

A neighbor testified that he saw a truck similar to San Miguel's drive by at the time of the shooting. An investigating officer located San Miguel's truck and observed inside a spent .22 long rifle shell of the same variety as spent shells found near the student's house. While talking to San Miguel and his wife in their apartment, the officer observed a holster for a .22 long rifle pistol, an empty magazine for an M-16 or AR-15 assault rifle, and ammunition for three or four different types of weapons, including the type of ammunition used in the shooting.

A fifth student, Adam Alvarez, was a friend of San Miguel's in school. He testified that he went with San Miguel during the shooting of the house. Alvarez testified that San Miguel and another student fired shots into the house with an automatic rifle and a pistol. Alvarez also testified that he personally saw San Miguel in nine fights in high school. Alvarez testified that San Miguel started a lot of the fights, that San Miguel enjoyed his reputation, and that no one picked on him. Alvarez testified that San Miguel had admitted to him breaking into houses, mostly to steal weapons. Alvarez further testified that San Miguel told him, “if he ever got caught, he wanted to go down for something everybody knew about or something big.”

An Irving police officer testified that he arrested San Miguel for unlawfully carrying a weapon in 1989, when San Miguel was stopped for speeding and had a revolver with an eight-inch barrel under his seat.

Another officer testified that in 1989 San Miguel signed a statement confessing to stealing a BMW, using it for a night, and then leaving it near his apartment. The officer testified that because San Miguel got the keys to the car from a member of the complainant's household, the charges were reduced to a misdemeanor and San Miguel received one-year probation.

An officer who arrested San Miguel for burglary of a house testified that he found a stolen shotgun and two pistols in San Miguel's room upon his arrest. Several witnesses testified that items found in San Miguel's apartment had been taken when their homes were burglarized.

Another officer testified that he arrested San Miguel on a traffic stop for failure to maintain a single lane, when San Miguel was found in possession of an illegally sawed off shotgun.

An Irving officer, who was once called out to a disturbance between two groups of males, arrested San Miguel for possessing illegal brass knuckles. The officer testified that San Miguel was standing with members of the Always Violent Boys gang.

A security guard at a Mervyn's store where San Miguel worked testified that after San Miguel was caught improperly using his employee discount to purchase items for third parties, San Miguel confessed to also stealing between $800 and $1,000 in merchandise. The security guard testified that San Miguel signed a promissory note to repay the store, but did not pay any amount.

Two jail officers testified about incidents while San Miguel was held. One officer testified that San Miguel refused to leave the recreation room and return to his cell. The officer testified that when they entered the room to get San Miguel, he struck one officer in the mouth and continued to try to hit them as they carried him back to his cell.

One officer testified about another occasion when San Miguel made the statement: “The only reason why I killed those people is they couldn't make good Mexican food.”

San Miguel had applied for a job at the Taco Bell where the murders occurred but was not hired. Green had been a former part-time employee of that restaurant.

San Miguel was also described as having been accused of shooting a man and having been arrested nine times, and as being free on bonds totaling $45,000 on four charges of weapons violations and burglaries at the time of the murders.

The offence

On January 26, 1991, Jessy San Miguel and his 17-year-old friend Jerome Green waited outside a Taco Bell restaurant that was closed and locked for the night.

When an employee opened the door to take out the trash, the pair went inside and forced the assistant manager, Michael John Phelan (28), to wait for a time-lock safe to open.

San Miguel and Green herded Michael John Phelan, restaurant employee Theresa Fraga (16), and Theresa's cousin Frank Fraga (23) into a walk-in freezer. Theresa Fraga was pregnant at the time.

The robbers noticed Son Trang Nyugen (35), a friend of the Fragas who was sitting in a vehicle outside and also forced him into the freezer with the other victims.

San Miguel and Green left the restaurant with the money.

A few minutes later, San Miguel decided to go back inside the restaurant and the freezer where his hostages were.

In a confession to police, San Miguel said he “asked them to give him a good reason why he shouldn't kill them”, then shot them each in the head at close range with a 9 mm pistol.

Michael Phelan was shot twice, once in the back of the head. Son Trang Nyugen was shot in the shoulder; the bullet entered his neck and exited near his nose. Frank Fraga was shot twice in the back of the head. Theresa Fraga, who was pregnant, was also shot twice in the back of the head.

Investigation

After San Miguel was pulled over in his car later that morning, police found bundles of money in a Taco Bell sack and a pistol later determined to be the murder weapon.

Police found ski masks, two pairs of gloves, and a nine millimeter automatic pistol which was empty except for one bullet. The gun smelled like it had been fired recently.

The bullets found in the victim's bodies matched the gun found in San Miguel's car. San Miguel's shoes and shirt had human blood on them.

After his arrest, San Miguel gave a statement to police admitting that he robbed the Taco Bell and that he personally killed the four victims. Two days after giving that statement, San Miguel gave another, similar confession to police.

Police began looking for Taco Bell restaurants in the area and found the four victims in the freezer. There was so much blood on the floor that police used a squeegee to find the spent cartridges from the murder weapon. The first officer on the scene fainted at the sight of the bodies.

Green was described as a former part-time employee of that restaurant. San Miguel had applied for a job there but was not hired.

Arrest

San Miguel and Green were stopped about a half a mile from the scene on suspicion of drunk driving.

In their car, police found the gun, two Taco Bell sacks stuffed with $1,390, ski masks, and two pairs of gloves.

Trial

At the trial, a jury sentenced San Miguel to death in June 1991.

San Miguel and his attorney contended he was unfairly convicted because of racial stereotyping. Court records showed that the prosecutor uttered a sentence that included various turns of the phrase “run for the border”, a Taco Bell ad slogan. They also claimed that San Miguel's defense attorney made numerous allegedly biased statements.

San Miguel did not testify at his trial.

Although San Miguel confessed to all four murders, he was only tried and convicted for killing Phelan.

Sentencing

During the punishment phase, students testified to prior violent conduct involving San Miguel, including threatening others with a knife, shooting a student in the stomach, fights started by San Miguel, and threats at a party involving his wife and another girl. Witnesses also testified about firearm and ammunition observations connected to the earlier shooting events.

One jail officer testified that San Miguel remarked before his conviction: “The only reason why I killed those people is they couldn't make good Mexican food.”

The jury sentenced San Miguel to death.

Appeals

Automatic appeal

The automatic appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals was affirmed on May 26, 1993.

United States Supreme Court

The United States Supreme Court denied certiorari review on March 21, 1994.

State habeas corpus

On Oct. 7, 1996, San Miguel filed an application for state habeas corpus relief and an amended application on June 20, 1997.

The trial court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law recommending that habeas relief be denied. Adopting some findings and rejecting others, the Court of Criminal Appeals denied habeas relief based on the remaining findings and the Court's own review on Nov. 5, 1997.

Federal habeas corpus

On May 26, 1998, San Miguel filed a petition for habeas relief in federal district. On May 11, 1999, the District Court entered a final judgement denying relief.

On Feb. 2, 2000, San Miguel's request for permission to appeal was denied by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Clemency and final appeals

The Texas Board of Pardons and paroles rejected a clemency request from San Miguel by a vote of 18 to 0.

The Supreme Court rejected his final appeal, and Governor George W. Bush declined to grant a temporary stay.

Outcome

San Miguel was executed by lethal injection in Texas on June 29, 2000.

San Miguel was pronounced dead at 6:19 p.m. Six members of his victims' families watched him die, but he never acknowledged their presence.

San Miguel urged friends and relatives watching him die to be strong and said he loved them. In his final statement, he said:

“It’s going to be all right,” he said. “Ironic, isn’t it?” he noted while his arms were outstretched on the death chamber gurney. “I’m a cross. Y’all take care of each other. I’ll be watching over you.”
When asked by the warden if that was all he had to say, San Miguel replied: “Yeah.”

Aftermath

Jerome Green accepted a plea bargain and pled guilty. Green was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment and was eligible for parole in 2004.

Mary Gomez, whose daughter and nephew were killed at the restaurant, said after watching San Miguel die: “He at least could have said: 'I'm sorry.'”

Toby Shook, an assistant district attorney in Dallas County who prosecuted the case, said: “It was just a cold-blooded, methodical execution of four people,”

San Miguel made a death row interview statement that included:

“The evidence is so obvious that I had a very unfair trial,” San Miguel said in a death row interview. “They did not base their decisions on my history, on my individuality. It was based on me being a Mexican.”

In the same death row interview, San Miguel also said:

“there is nothing I could do to stop what happened. People react in the heat of the moment . . . when something happens out of instinct, we just do it. We don't do it out of intent, we don't do it on purpose, it just happens.”

San Miguel also stated in a death row interview:

“What troubles me is Gov. Bush continually tells the media and the newspapers that he has always been fair, that they have ways in the system to be ensured everybody has a fair trial, but all that is not true,” San Miguel said in a death row interview Wednesday.

San Miguel made another statement attributed to him while in jail:

“The only reason why I killed those people is they couldn't make good Mexican food.”

A confession statement attributed to San Miguel included:

“asked them to give him a good reason why he shouldn't kill them,” then shot them each in the head at close range with a 9 mm pistol.