Ignacio Cuevas
Ignacio Cuevas (born July 31, 1931 in Mexico , † May 23, 1991 in Huntsville , Texas ) was an American murderer.
biography
The son of an immigrant farm worker was married and the father of nine children. On January 9, 1970, Cuevas killed Rito Villanon with three headshots during an altercation in a pub. He was arrested less than an hour later and sentenced to 45 years in prison for murder. In 1971 he was admitted to the Huntsville Unit .
On July 24, 1974, he was involved in the longest prison hostage-taking in US history when he took over the prison library together with inmates Federico Carrasco and Rudolfo Dominguez and brought 15 people under his control, including 11 civilian employees. They had three pistols and about 300 rounds of ammunition that had been smuggled into food cans.
During the next eleven days, one hostage escaped and two others were released on medical grounds. On August 3, the three criminals tried to get hold of an armored car that had been provided. They handcuffed themselves to a female hostage, reinforced chalkboards with books and wanted to reach the escape vehicle in what the media called the "Trojan Taco".
However, the police tried to overpower the perpetrators with water cannons, which resulted in a shooting. Carrasco, Dominguez, and two hostages were killed. Cuevas was overwhelmed unharmed and charged with the two hostage murders of the librarian Julia Standley and the teacher Elizabeth Beseda. Although there is no evidence that he shot either woman, he was sentenced to death under current Texas law in 1975 for the murder of Julia Standley , who was shot by his accomplice Rudolfo Dominguez. On 30 May 1975 he was in the death row transferred from Texas.
His conviction was overturned in 1978 for procedural misconduct, but he was sentenced to death again in a new trial in 1979. This judgment, too, was overturned in 1982 due to a procedural error and a third trial was carried out, in which Cuevas was sentenced to death for the third time in 1983. The sentence and sentence were upheld by the Texas Court of Appeals in July 1987.
On May 23, 1991, Ignacio Cuevas was executed by lethal injection in the Huntsville Unit .
literature
- Ronald W. Robinson: Prison hostage: the siege of the Walls Prison in Huntsville, Texas. Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, NY circa 1997, ISBN 0773485643 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cuevas, Ignacio |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American murderer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 31, 1931 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mexico |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 23, 1991 |
| Place of death | Huntsville, Texas, USA |