Convicted strangler of 3-year-old set to die - 21st execution for Texas in 2003

Associated Press ^ | August 6, 2003 | Associated Press Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

Convicted strangler of 3-year-old set to die

08/06/2003

Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - The one certainty in a "he said, she said" case that put a Brownsville man on death row and a woman in prison for life is that a 3-year-old boy was murdered, sexually abused and strangled with the elastic from his own underwear.

"Not that any murder case makes sense, but this was just totally senseless," says Luis Saenz, the former Cameron County district attorney who prosecuted Jose Alfredo Rivera, condemned for the slaying of Luis Daniel Blanco 10 years ago. "It's hard to figure out motive or what these people were thinking."

Rivera, 40, faced lethal injection Wednesday night. He would be the 21st Texas inmate executed this year.

AP

Jose Alfredo Rivera

An acquaintance, Veronica Zavala, 28, also was convicted of capital murder. Sentenced to life, she's not eligible for parole until July 2028 at the earliest.

Zavala testified at her trial she held down the toddler's arms while he was being killed and performed sex acts on the child but also contended she was forced to participate because Rivera had threatened her.

"She tried to blame it all on me," Rivera said recently from death row. "She named me so she could get away with it."

Rivera, a construction worker, was on parole for burglary and parole violation when he was arrested for the killing. He also had a 15-year history of sniffing paint fumes to get high.

Also Online

	Texas Executions: Coverage from TXCN.com
	Offender profile: Jose Alfredo Rivera
Related links
	Texas Department of Criminal Justice
	Scheduled executions
	Offenders on death row

"I was the bad apple in the neighborhood so they picked me up," said Rivera, who contended Brownsville police beat and threatened him until he confessed.

"They forced it out of me," he said.

"Absolutely, unequivocally, there was none of that," Saenz responded.

Zavala has changed her version of the crime numerous times and has written prosecutors to absolve Rivera.

"It goes beyond a tepid: 'He didn't do it,"' said David Sergi, Rivera's appellate lawyer. "This woman is really trying to correct a wrong."

In appeals to the federal courts, Rivera argued he was innocent and ineligible for execution because he was mentally retarded.

Zavala lived next door to the child's family, who had moved to Texas from Mexico. After Zavala visited to use the family phone late the morning of July 9, 1993, and while the child's mother was distracted by other telephone calls, the boy either accompanied or followed Zavala as she walked to nearby Lincoln Park in Brownsville. There she either met or was confronted by Rivera.

"They start partaking in a cocaine binge," Saenz said. "The next thing you know they're engaging in sexual conduct right there at the park in broad daylight. And the next thing you know the baby is floating in the water."

The boy's mother had called police after her son disappeared and she couldn't find him or Zavala, who returned home about three hours later and became agitated and denied knowing the whereabouts of Daniel Blanco.

His nude body was found the next day in the park pond.

At her trial, Zavala testified Rivera told her the boy had to die because he would tell of their drug and sexual activity, then told jurors how Rivera tore the waistband from the toddler's underwear and started choking him. Zavala said as the child screamed and struggled, she held down his arms to comfort him.

The photo of the child in the water is what Saenz particularly remembers about the case 10 years later.

"To this day, it just blows me away," he said. "It was just terrible.

"When one thinks about the death penalty, this is precisely why the state of Texas I'm sure has the death penalty, for individuals like Jose Rivera."

"If I had been there, that boy would be alive," Rivera argued from death row, maintaining his innocence. "If I have to, I get executed. My conscience is clear."

---

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/tsw/stories/080603dntexexecute.fffcb03f.html

[MeekOneGOP]

Texas Department of Criminal Justice
448 Offenders are Currently on Death Row

[MeekOneGOP]

Convicted strangler of 3-year-old set to die -
21st execution for Texas in 2003

AP
Jose Alfredo Rivera

Excerpt:

"They start partaking in a cocaine binge," Saenz said. "The next thing you know they're engaging in sexual conduct right there at the park in broad daylight. And the next thing you know the baby is floating in the water."

The boy's mother had called police after her son disappeared and she couldn't find him or Zavala, who returned home about three hours later and became agitated and denied knowing the whereabouts of Daniel Blanco.

His nude body was found the next day in the park pond.

At her trial, Zavala testified Rivera told her the boy had to die because he would tell of their drug and sexual activity, then told jurors how Rivera tore the waistband from the toddler's underwear and started choking him. Zavala said as the child screamed and struggled, she held down his arms to comfort him.

The photo of the child in the water is what Saenz particularly remembers about the case 10 years later.

"To this day, it just blows me away," he said. "It was just terrible.

"When one thinks about the death penalty, this is precisely why the state of Texas I'm sure has the death penalty, for individuals like Jose Rivera."

"If I had been there, that boy would be alive," Rivera argued from death row, maintaining his innocence. "If I have to, I get executed. My conscience is clear."

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas Executions ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[Onelifetogive]

Zavala testified at her trial she held down the toddler's arms while he was being killed and performed sex acts on the child...

Too bad Texas doesn't have a matched set of His and Her's lethal injections...

[Sparta]

The death penalty was created for perverts like him.

[beaversmom]

I"m glad he is getting it but it just doesn't seem enough sometimes for the crime that has been committed especially in a case like this. GOD will have to take care of any further punishment.

[chiefqc]

Bring back the Old West justice.

Do the crime in the morning, caught, tried, and found guilty in the evening, hung the next morning.

Case closed, Next.

[Veggie Todd]

Burn in hell, A**hole!

[beaversmom]

My dad said they used to do it that way in England when he was over there back in the 50's. The judge would tell the person--"You will hang Tuesday next" and that was that.

[underbyte]

Does not get much sicker than that.

I like Texas, I think other states should Outsource their death row POP. to Texas . They seem to get the job done.

[eyespysomething]

Sentenced to life, she's not eligible for parole until July 2028 at the earliest.

I can dream can't I? Oh wait, that would be her next to him being executed also.

Sickos

[Chi-townChief]

So where are all the highly vocal death penalty opponents on this one?

[SwinneySwitch]

The barbarians are inside the gates!

[Shooter 2.5]

It's sort of like taking the stolen horse from the horse thief. I can't get any clearer than that.

[dead]

its nice to know the government is still killing people to teach people that killing people is wrong
wonderful logic

Since you’re obviously cognitively lacking, I’ll spell it out a little clearer for you:

The government is legally carrying out a sentence meted out by a jury of the child molester and murderer's peers, to uphold the concept that child molestation and murder are wrong.

In addition, they are ensuring that this particular offender does not have recidivism as an option.

This is solid logic for anybody with a full load of functioning synapses.

[hellinahandcart]

Good riddance. That was one of the stupidest trolls we've had here in a long time.

[dead]

I can't believe a functioning adult cannot distinguish between murdering a child, and carrying out a legally sanctioned sentence of execution, meted out after an extensive trial and appeal process.

The man was proven guilty of an absolutely horrendous crime, and he equates his sentence of execution with the sexual murder of a three-year-old boy.

What a moron.

[hellinahandcart]

He didn't function too well over on the gay bishop thread, either. Extremely irritating.

[Guillermo]

The alleged perp is obviously a Hispanic, therefore it's racist that he's being put to death.