An American court in the County of El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday, handed a death sentence to a man convicted of murdering Sheriff Deputy Peter Herrera in 2019.
Facundo Chavez was sentenced to death after admitting to firing 15 shots at the traffic cop and deserting him to his fate on March 22, 2019, at around 1:50 a.m., in the 1000 block of Chicken Ranch Road, San Elizario area.
“I shot Deputy Herrera. I beat him with a gun,” Chavez testified twice in his trials, as the prosecution showed footage of Herrera laying in his pool of blood to the jury of nine women and three men who heard the case.
The 32-year-old Chavez was with his girlfriend, Arlene Piña, when Herrera flagged his car for traffic violations, failing to dim high-beam headlights and improperly displaying a temporary license plate permit. It is then that he stopped, got out of the car, pulled the handgun, and shot at the officer, who was taken to Del Sol Medical Center for critical care but succumbed after two days.
The couple fled the scene but was arrested days later in their hideout by US Border Patrol agents. After several court hearings, Piña was subject to charges of capital murder but got a plea deal with El Paso District Attorney Yvonne Rosales, reducing the leveled offense to manslaughter. She is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence.
Now, the panel of judges led by Judge Diane Navarrete found Chavez guilty of capital murder on August 3. And in a deliberation that took nearly 10 hours of two days, he will be put to death, but the execution date is not yet announced.
Chavez had no visible reaction when Judge Navarrete read the verdict.
