Texas to Hold Sixth Execution of the Year Tonight in Huntstville

The Texas death toll will rise to six on Wednesday evening in Huntsville, when inmate Manuel Garza Jr. is scheduled to be put to death for the murder of San Antonio police officer John Riojas in 2001.

According to records from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Riojas approached Garza on a street in San Antonio on Feb. 2, 2001, and asked him for his name. Garza, who was well aware he had warrants out for his arrest, sprinted away when Riojas asked him to place his hands on the police car.

Officer Riojas chased Garza down and eventually caught him, the two becoming involved in a physical altercation. During the struggle, Riojas pulled his gun, but Garza wrested it away from him and fired a fatal shot at the officer. He was arrested two days later.

Garza, who was 20 years old when the offense was committed, entered the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on Nov. 11, 2002 at age 22. He has spent the past 12 years five months seeking appellate relief, finally being denied a final time on June 30, 2014, by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Garza’s criminal record began when he was juvenile and includes 25 different instances of burglary, theft, evading arrest and escape from custody that began in February 1995 and continued through January 2001, a month before the capital murder.

Garza, now 34, is the second Bexar County inmate to be executed this year by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He’s also the second inmate to be executed this month in Huntsville. Five more are currently slated for death between today and June 18, the next of which is Richard Vasquez of Nueces County.