Carlos DeLuna
Carlos DeLuna (/dəˈluːnə/; March 15, 1962 – December 7, 1989) was an American man who was convicted of murder and executed by the State of Texas for killing Wanda Lopez, a 24-year-old gas station attendant in Corpus Christi, on the evening of February 4, 1983.
[2] An investigation published by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review in May 2012 has strengthened these claims of innocence by detailing a large amount of evidence suggesting the actual murderer was Carlos Hernandez, a similar-looking man who lived in a nearby neighborhood.
Carlos DeLuna was charged with killing a gas station attendant, 24-year-old Wanda Lopez, on the evening of February 4, 1983, in Corpus Christi, Texas.
"[10] The original police radio alert from the scene (from Sergeant Bruno Mejia) reported the suspect was "northbound on foot, to the rear" of the store.
Baker attempted to help her, and went inside the station to grab some paper towels to stanch the bleeding until the police and paramedics arrived.
Aguirre declined, but was concerned about the knife, so when he went inside to pay for his gas he told the cashier, victim Lopez, to call the police.
Aguirre drove off and made a U-turn onto the adjacent freeway, and when he looked back, he saw the man and victim Lopez struggling inside the store.
[15] Aguirre pulled off the freeway and drove to a nearby bowling alley to ask a security guard to call the police.
At around the same time, John and Julie Arsuaga were pulling into a nearby club when they observed a Hispanic man jogging towards the east, away from the Shamrock, in an untucked white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and dark "uniform-style" pants.
[27] Police also briefly stopped a car described as "a blue Mercury or LTD" and occupied by "two Hispanic males" in the area of the chase for the suspect.
[28] Police eventually found DeLuna, 30–40 minutes after the crime, hiding under a parked truck a few blocks away from the Shamrock gas station.
After initial hesitation about participating in the "show-up" due to fear, both Baker and Aguirre looked into the police car and identified DeLuna as the man they'd seen attack Lopez.
The first, Hector De Pena Jr., was the son of a local judge and a former Deputy District Attorney and County prosecutor who had been in practice since 1972.
As the more experienced attorney, Lawrence conducted most of the direct and cross-examinations, and gave the closing argument in both the guilt and penalty phases.
[49] Thereafter, DeLuna and Hernandez went to a bar named Wolfy's, located directly across the street from the Shamrock gas station.
Worried that people might say he was involved with Hernandez, DeLuna started walking away on Dodd toward Nemec (i.e., not in the direction of the Phase III where the Arsuagas saw a man running).
"[64] De Peña suggests that DeLuna was afraid to identify Hernandez: "He didn't want to risk possibly getting hurt in the county jail or even killed on the street.
[68] In June 2006, the Chicago Tribune published a series of investigative news stories that examined evidence that DeLuna may have been convicted in error.
"[71] The Chicago Tribune and Columbia University teams rather easily discovered extensive details about and acquaintances of the Carlos Hernandez to whom DeLuna had long referred.
Hernandez, who died from cirrhosis in a Texas prison in 1999, was a career criminal living in the same neighborhood and had a history of assaulting women, robbing gas stations, and carrying knives.
The Columbia team found people who knew Hernandez and said he bragged to them about murdering Lopez and letting DeLuna take the blame.
They also learned Hernandez had been arrested as a suspect – before charges were dropped – in the death of a woman, Dahlia Sauceda, killed several years earlier in the same area of Corpus Christi.
Hernandez also later served 19 months (of a 10-year sentence) in prison for stabbing another woman, Dina Ybanez, with a lock-blade knife nearly identical to the one used in the Lopez killing.
[72] The Columbia report documented numerous cases in which Hernandez was arrested while in possession of lock-blade knives similar to the one used to kill Lopez.
Nueces County District Attorney Mark Skurka, who was not involved with DeLuna's case and had not read the Columbia report, said that the researchers are arguing the same issues and complained that "[those] people have already made up their mind, it doesn't matter what anyone says.
On the other hand, Wanda Lopez's brother, Richard, issued a statement in June 2006 saying, "After carefully reviewing the information recently uncovered and printed by Steve Mills and Maurice Possley in the Chicago Tribune, I am convinced that Carlos DeLuna did not kill my sister and that Carlos Hernandez was the real murderer.
