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'Railway Killer' gets death sentence for murder of Houston-area doctor
HOUSTON (CNN) -- A Texas jury decided Monday that "Railway Killer" Angel Maturino Resendiz should be executed for the December 1998 rape and slaying of Houston physician Claudia Benton. Judge William Harmon then ordered the death penalty for Maturino Resendiz, who has admitted to nine slayings in three states.
Under Texas law, jurors could have chosen a sentence of life in prison, which would have meant the possibility of parole for the 40-year-old Mexican drifter in the year 2039. But after deliberating for less than two hours, the five men and seven women unanimously agreed that Maturino Resendiz posed a continuing threat to society. The jurors said they found no mitigating factors to warrant a life sentence. The same jurors convicted Resendiz last Thursday of the murdering Benton. She was beaten with a statue, stabbed with a chef's knife and raped. DNA evidence from the sexual assault was used to identify Maturino Resendiz as a suspect. He is charged in six other killings -- one in Kentucky, three in Texas, and two in Illinois -- and has been named as the only suspect in two other Texas killings. On the opening day of the trial, one of his attorneys said Maturino Resendiz was responsible for all nine killings and changed his plea in the Benton case to not guilty by reason of insanity. 'He knows what he's doing'Maturino Resendiz told the court outside the jury's presence that he would rather go to the Texas death chamber than spend life in prison. During the three-day penalty phase, prosecutors urged jurors to grant Maturino Resendiz his wish to die by lethal injection for the attack on Benton. Prosecutor Devon Anderson had argued that Maturino Resendiz enjoyed committing a string of murders with anonymity, changing his name repeatedly in numerous trips across the U.S.-Mexico border and moving from one killing to another by freight car. When his face appeared on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List, he lost that anonymity and was forced to stop, she argued. Anderson also said the convicted killer, if ever released, would resume his life of crime, having learned from his past "mistakes" not to leave fingerprints and DNA evidence behind. She told the jury, "He knows what he's doing, and he's making the choice to do it, and he won't stop."
Survivor of attack testifiesOn Monday, jurors heard from the only known survivor of an attack by Maturino Resendiz. The woman described how Maturino Resendiz stabbed and raped her and killed her boyfriend, Christopher Maier, 21, along a Kentucky rail line in 1997. The woman testified in vivid detail that Maturino Resendiz approached her and Maier as they sat to watch trains go by, and that he demanded money. When the two said they were carrying no cash, Maturino Resendiz tied them up with their belts and gagged them with ripped pieces of their backpacks, she said. Crying, the woman said Maturino Resendiz hit Maier with a rock several times. "He came back and said, 'He's gone. You don't have to worry about him anymore,'" she said. The woman said Maturino Resendiz stabbed her in the neck with a screwdriver-like weapon and threatened to kill her before he raped her. She suffered a broken eye socket, broken jaw, cuts on her head and neck and scratches on her face. Maturino Resendiz claims Texas Ranger liedAfter the woman's testimony, the defense called only one witness, FBI Agent Kimberly Wilkins, who was present during negotiations for Maturino Resendiz's surrender. She testified that his family asked for three things: Psychological help for Maturino Resendiz, humane treatment and jail visitation rights. The defense has contended that the demand for humane treatment was a plea for no death penalty, since Mexico has no death penalty, and Maturino Resendiz is a Mexican citizen. Maturino Resendiz did not testify in his defense. His attorneys said in closing arguments Monday that their client recognized he was a dangerous man and therefore turned himself in to authorities at a border crossing last July after leaving his northern Mexico home. "He recognized that he needed help," defense lawyer Rudy Duarte told the jury. He said Maturino Resendiz's surrender differentiated him from mass killers such as Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Duarte said, "If Mr. Resendiz had not turned himself in, what is there to believe that he would have been caught, if ever?" The death penalty, Duarte said, would send the wrong message, by discouraging other fugitives from turning themselves in. In his first public comments since his trial started May 8, Maturino Resendiz spoke in a shaky voice when the judge asked him if there was any reason he should not pronounce the death penalty. "That police officer lied under oath, and I don't think that it's right," Maturino Resendiz said, pointing to Texas Ranger Drew Carter, the officer he surrendered to on the U.S. side of the international bridge connecting El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on July 13. "He lied under oath," Maturino Resendiz said, apparently referring to his family's belief that authorities promised no death penalty would be imposed. Harmon told him an appeal of his death sentence was automatic and he would appoint attorneys to handle the appeal. The Associated Press contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: Maturino Resendiz convicted of murder in railway killer case RELATED SITES: FBI | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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