A Texas man convicted of the fatal assault of an elderly retired schoolteacher in her own residence maintains his innocence. He denies participating in the murder and asserts that DNA testing would exonerate him, offering irrefutable proof of his non-involvement in the crime.
Ruben Gutierrez, 47, is set to be executed Tuesdayby lethal injection at a state prison in Huntsville, about 70 miles north of Houston. That would make him the third inmate put to death in the state this year and the 10th in the nation.
Gutierrez was convicted in the 1998 beating death of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison, who was targeted because she didn't trust banks and reportedly had $600,000 in cash in her home in the south Texas border city of Brownsville, according to court records.
Who is Ruben Gutierrez?
According to USA TODAY, at the time of the crime, Gutierrez was a 21-year-old married man and father of two children. He had been working as a security guard at a resort on South Padre Island. His marital journey began at the age of 17 when his girlfriend became pregnant, leading to their marriage.
Gutierrez was born in Fort Myers, Florida, and when he was around 8 years old, his parents relocated the family to Brownsville, along with his older brother.
The Gutierrez brothers grew up in a low-income house with an alcoholic father who frequently beat both his sons and his wife, who at one point was hospitalized after a nervous breakdown, according to Diane Mosnik, a clinical neuropsychologist who evaluated Gutierrez in 2019.
As a young adult, Gutierrez struggled with behavioral problems in school and with drug use, first trying cocaine at age 13 and eventually progressing to using it on a “near daily basis” up until his arrest, she wrote.
Mosnik diagnosed Gutierrez with post-traumatic stress disorder.
What was Ruben Gutierrez convicted of?
The victim, Harrison, had been living with her nephew, Avel Cuellar, in 1998. Gutierrez was a friend of Cuellar's and was frequently at Harrison's home socializing and drinking with friends, and befriended the 85-year-old and ran errands for her, eventually learning about the cash she kept in her home and crafting a plan to steal it, according to court records.
On Sept. 5, 1998, Gutierrez and two other men − Rene and Pedro Garcia − went to Harrison's home to rob her. The accounts of what happened in her home vary, with Gutierrez arguing that he waited outside and had no idea things would get violent.
Regardless, Harrison ended up “face down in a pool of blood” after having been beaten and stabbed, court records say. Though Gutierrez thought Harrison had $600,000 in the home, the men made away with at least $56,000.
Gutierrez, now 47, was sentenced to death in 1999 for the stabbing and beating murder of 85-year-old Harrison.
What is Ruben Gutierrez arguing in his appeal?
In an effort to be exonerated from the murder of Harrison, Gutierrez asserts that DNA analysis of evidence collected at the crime scene can serve as irrefutable proof of his innocence. Among the items submitted for testing are fingernail scrapings, hair strands, articles of clothing, and blood samples.
On top of that, authorities failed to properly investigate a “main alternative suspect,” who knew the victim personally, had just as much access to Harrison, and provided inconsistent statements to authorities, Gutierrez argues.
Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz refutes Gutierrez's claims, telling USA TODAY last week that his efforts are merely a “delay tactic.”
In his ultimately failed clemency petition, Gutierrez argued that jurors never heard about his traumatizing background, and one of his jurors now doesn't want him executed and another juror thinks the DNA testing should be performed.
Gutierrez currently has a petition pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to rule on the matter sometime between now and the start of Gutierrez’s execution.
Only a Supreme Court ruling or a pardon from Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott could stop the execution.
When is Ruben Gutierrez scheduled to be executed?
Gutierrez is set to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, July 16, anytime after 6 p.m. CT. According to USA TODAY, Gutierrez chose a meal from a menu available to all inmates in the Huntsville Unit since Texas no longer accommodates last-meal requests from condemned inmates.
It is the most common execution method in the country, with jurisdictions employing one, two, or as many as three drugs to put an inmate to death.
One of Harrison’s nephews, Alex Hernandez, plans to witness the moment Gutierrez is put to death to fulfill a promise he made on his mother’s deathbed.
