Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Railcar Killer's Date With Death Set
Local News Houston ^ | 1/6/06 | Local News Houston

Posted on 01/06/2006 4:59:25 PM PST by Buffettfan

Railcar Killer's Date With Death Set Death Row Inmate To Be Executed On May 10

POSTED: 10:09 am CST January 6, 2006 UPDATED: 2:15 pm CST January 6, 2006

HOUSTON -- Condemned serial killer Angel Maturino Resendiz, the Mexican drifter dubbed the "Railcar Killer," was scheduled Friday to be executed on May 10 for raping and killing a Houston doctor.

Maturino Resendiz's lawyer, Jack Zimmermann, objected to the setting of the execution date while an appeal before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is pending, but prosecutor Roe Wilson argued that the appeals process could continue even with an execution date set.

"It is time. We need to carry out the sentence and justice needs to be served," Wilson said.

Maturino Resendiz got the name the "Railcar Killer" because he was linked to 14 slayings in Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Illinois near the rail lines he rode nationwide. He has claimed to have committed even more.

Three people who attended the hearing said they came from Mexico to represent the killer's family but would not identify themselves. Thomas Konvicka, whose mother, Josephine, was killed in June 1999 in Fayette County, also attended the brief hearing before state District Judge Bill Harmon.

Maturino Resendiz, wearing dark-rimmed glasses with his gray beard and hair, answered no when Harmon asked if he had anything to say.

Maturino Resendiz was condemned for the 1998 murder of Dr. Claudia Benton, 39, who was raped, stabbed and beaten in her home in West University Place, a wealthy enclave within Houston.

At his Houston trial in May 2000, defense lawyers argued he was innocent by reason of insanity. Prosecutors said he had personality defects but was sane.

His spree swept fear across Texas and the nation during the spring and early summer of 1999. Between May 2 and June 15 of that year, authorities said he killed four people in Texas and two more in rural Illinois.

The Border Patrol had picked him up for illegal entry that June 2 near El Paso, but he was taken to Mexico and released. Immigration officials said they were unaware the man -- who used numerous aliases -- was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List as Rafael Resendez-Ramirez.

He committed four slayings after being released. Six weeks later, he crossed an international bridge into El Paso and surrendered to a Texas Ranger.

During his trial, the rail-riding drifter asked for the death penalty. After his conviction, he pledged to drop all his appeals to hasten his execution. He eventually changed his mind and filed appeals.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in March 2004 rejected his appeal. The court had previously affirmed his 2000 conviction and death sentence.



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: capitalpunishment; illegalimmigration; mexico; tookie
Time for this scumbag criminal illegal alien murderer to get the "Tookie" treatment. I suggest we start a daily countdown just like we did for Tookie baby.
1 posted on 01/06/2006 4:59:26 PM PST by Buffettfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: Buffettfan

Texas has him, Texas will kill him.


3 posted on 01/06/2006 5:15:20 PM PST by Supernatural (All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie! bob dylan)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Supernatural

Yep, Texas is darn good at it, too.


4 posted on 01/06/2006 5:17:11 PM PST by john drake (roman military maxim: "oderint dum metuant, i.e., let them hate, as long as they fear")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: john drake

In fact, we're the best!


5 posted on 01/06/2006 5:21:10 PM PST by manic4organic (We won. Get over it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Buffettfan
Time for this scumbag criminal illegal alien murderer to get the "Tookie" treatment.

Why did he write Libros para los Ninos? ;)

6 posted on 01/06/2006 5:24:31 PM PST by freedumb2003 (American troops cannot be defeated. American Politicians can.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Buffettfan

Adios, muchacho!


7 posted on 01/06/2006 5:26:34 PM PST by MistrX
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: manic4organic

Yep, agreed. Although I still think the firing squad option that is/was available in Utah is the most manly way to go if you were dumb enough to commit a capital crime.


8 posted on 01/06/2006 5:27:50 PM PST by john drake (roman military maxim: "oderint dum metuant, i.e., let them hate, as long as they fear")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Buffettfan

I hope and pray that when he's done in that he is NOT buried in Texas soil. That would be an abomination. His remains need to go south to Mexico.


9 posted on 01/06/2006 5:30:38 PM PST by GW and Twins Pawpaw (Sheepdog for Five [My grandkids are way more important than any lefty's feelings!])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Buffettfan

It's about time. That bastard killed an elderly man and then raped and killed his daughter in a small town close to where I live. He is an example of how our government has failed to protect us by not making the borders more secure. He managed to cross back and forth into the U.S. several times and people were killed as a result.


10 posted on 01/06/2006 5:58:00 PM PST by LoudRepublicangirl (loudrepublicangirl)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: john drake

Yep, Texas is darn good at it, too.

I thank GOD Texas has him. My wussie state has a moritorium on the death penalty currently thanks to the crook George Ryan and the even crookier Rod Blagojavich. This little bastardo is right where he should be-in the hands of Texas justice!!!!


11 posted on 01/06/2006 6:01:36 PM PST by LoudRepublicangirl (loudrepublicangirl)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: LoudRepublicangirl
This dirtball is the poster child for why we need a border fence. A great commercial would be his face beside this fence.
12 posted on 01/06/2006 6:04:30 PM PST by Buffettfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: LoudRepublicangirl

I'm sitting in the same state as you, LoudRepublicanGirl.
I'm a red stater stuck in a blue state. I hope enough other folks in the red states know there's a lot of us in the Land of Lincoln, trying to wrestle the state back from the enemy, unfortunately our party had a lot of corrupt, RINOs in it that are now being dispatched via the Feds. It's going to take a while to rebuild the Republican party into a viable, strong, conservative type party. It can be done, though.


13 posted on 01/06/2006 6:06:59 PM PST by john drake (roman military maxim: "oderint dum metuant, i.e., let them hate, as long as they fear")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Buffettfan

There won't be no celebrities, nor nobody else (save the hard core religiou anti-DP crowd) sticking up for this slime.

Stick a fork in him, he is done. And good riddence.


14 posted on 01/06/2006 6:31:42 PM PST by jocon307 (Still mourning the loss of CBS FM)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Buffettfan
You are forgetting the wall. A very HIGH wall. illegals could create a bridge to straddle the barbed wire. The American/Mexican border is 5,317 mile long. A lot of fence to patrol. A wall would be far more, if not impossible, to scale or tunnel under.
15 posted on 01/06/2006 7:04:21 PM PST by This Just In ("Those are my principles, if you don't like them, I've got others" - Groucho Marx)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Buffettfan
 
 
 
"..On June 2, the Border Patrol apprehended Angel Resendez near El Paso as he was attempting to cross the border illegally. While he was in its custody, the United States Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS) performed a computer search on him, checking his fingerprints and photo against a possible fugitives list. Because the system failed to identify him as a wanted man, the INS deported him to Mexico..
 
..After his release, Resendez immediately found his way back into the States where, within 48 hours, he killed both Dominguez and Konvicka near Houston, then Morber and his daughter in Illinois. Four innocent people murdered over a computer glitch.
 
.. a month after the mistake, a Justice Department representative admitted that the West University Place Police Department had notified the INS about Resendez back in December right after the death of Dr. Benton, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner announced an internal investigation into the matter."
 
 
The Killings

Following is a list of the nine serial murders attributed to Resendez:

  • Christopher Maier
    VICTIM 1: August 29, 1997/Lexington. KY: Christopher Maier, 21, a University of Kentucky student, and his girlfriend are attacked while walking along the tracks near the college. Maier is bludgeoned to death and she is raped and beaten, almost to the point of death. She miraculously survives.
  • VICTIM 2: October 4, 1998/Hughes Spring, TX: On this cool Fall evening, 87-year-old Leafie Mason is hammered to death by a tire iron by someone who enters her home through a window. Her front door faces the Kansas City-Southern Rail Line tracks only 50 yards away.
  • Dr. Claudia Benton
    VICTIM3: December 17, 1998/Houston, TX: An invader breaks into the home of Dr. Claudia Benton, 39, of the Baylor College of Medicine, when she arrives home, the intruder rapes, stabs and bludgeons her repeatedly with a blunt instrument. Her home is near the rail lines that run through suburban West University Place. When the police recover her stolen Jeep Cherokee in San Antonio. TX, they find fingerprints on the steering column that match those of drifter Resendez, a known illegal alien. Three weeks later, a county judge signs a warrant for Resendez’ arrest for burglary – but, strangely enough, not for murder. There is not enough evidence, says he!
  • Rev. Norman Sirnic and wife Karen
    VICTIMS 4 & 5: May 2, 1999 Weimar, TX: Late at night, the Reverend Norman J. "Skip" Sirnic, 46, and wife Karen, 47, are struck to death by a sledgehammer in the parsonage of the United Church of Christ -- located adjacent to the town’s railroad. The couple’s red Mazda is found in San Antonio three weeks later. Forensic evidence matches the killing of Dr. Benton in Houston
  • Noemi Dominguez
    VICTIM 6: June 4, 1999: Houston, TX: Schoolteacher Noemi Dominguez, 26, is clubbed to death in her apartment, located near rail tracks. Seven days later, troopers find Dominguez’ 1993 white Honda Civic abandoned at the international bridge at Del Rio, Texas.
  • Josephine Konvicka
    VICTIM 7: June 4, 1999/Fayette County, TX: Seventy-three-year-old Josephine Konvicka is killed in bed by a blow of a pointed garden tool to the head. She lived in a frame farmhouse not far from Weimar, where a month prior Rev. and Mrs. Simic were killed, and within shadows of a rail yard. Her car has been tampered with, but the killer is unable to find the keys.
  • George Morber
    VICTIMS 8 & 9: June 15, 1999/Gorham, IL: An intruder breaks into a mobile home to kill its two occupants, After shooting George Morber, Sr.,80, in the head with a shotgun, he then clubs to death Morber’s daughter, Carolyn Frederick, 52. Their house sits only 100 yards from the a railroad track. The next day, a passerby spots Fredericks’ red pickup truck in Cairo, IL, sixty miles south of Gorham, being driven by a man matching Resendez’ description.
  • Carolyn Frederick
    Most of Resendez’ victims were found covered with a blanket; none were of a tall or burly stature, for the killer himself is of a diminutive size and stature. But, he might well have been a giant for the terror he struck in the hearts of otherwise-relaxed communities. Citizens’ emotions ran high in the towns where he killed; in the smaller ones, especially, people who had never locked their doors and windows at night were now bolting them. Children were ushered off the dusky streets by nervous parents, shops closed early, and moonlit strolls ended.

Sentiments throughout pretty much echoed the words of Mayor Bernie Kosler of Weimar, the little Texas burgh where the Simics and Mrs. Konvicka were slain. "The stores around here," he said, "have sold out of pistols."


16 posted on 01/06/2006 7:33:25 PM PST by wolficatZ (Jonathan Quayle Higgins III - "Zeus...Apollo...Eat the Trolls!"....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: wolficatZ

wolf,

Thanks for the details. I have been waiting for this case to come back on the radar screen for awhile now. All anti-illegal immigration activists show make this POS the poster boy for why need need major reform NOW! Fourteen innocent Americans are now dead because the federal government will NOT do it's job and protect the American borders. This year will be the year of fireworks. We will not rest until all illegals are sent packing.


17 posted on 01/07/2006 5:16:01 AM PST by Buffettfan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson