One day after the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals granted his client a stay of execution, Michael Dean Gonzales’ attorney said he’s got a fingerprint expert working to exonerate his client. Whether new DNA testing will be conducted remains up in the air, however.
Gonzales, 48, was scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday in the April 1994 deaths of Manuel and Merced Aguirre. An Ector County jury convicted him in December 1995 of stabbing the couple to death during a robbery.
Defense attorney Richard Burr has been filing a flurry of motions in recent weeks in an attempt to stop the execution on a number of grounds.
According to court documents, Burr contends Gonzales’ IQ doesn’t meet the legal threshold required for execution and he has new evidence he believes could prove Gonzales didn’t kill the elderly couple, including recently discovered fingerprints and DNA evidence. He said prosecutors withheld evidence that could have cast doubt on Gonzales’ guilt and he also said prosecutors “knowingly elicited” false testimony.
On Thursday, the Court of Appeals ordered Ector County District Judge John Schrode to look into whether Gonzales has an intellectual disability that would preclude him from being executed and whether the prosecution suppressed evidence.
The court did not make mention of the newly discovered evidence or the “false testimony” in its ruling. However, Burr has filed separate motions in both the appellate court and state court requesting new DNA tests be conducted. Rulings have not yet been made on those motions, which were filed late Wednesday.
It’s unclear what will come next — hearings pertaining to the Court of Appeals’ decision or hearings regarding the DNA tests.
Assistant Attorney General Erich Bryden declined to comment Friday.
“We do not know what Judge Schrode has in mind,” Burr said via email Friday. “We anticipate that he will have discussions with the AG and us about scheduling before any schedule is set.”
However, Burr said, “now that we have the latent fingerprints and the execution has been stayed, our fingerprint expert will be comparing the prints to the fingerprints of others who may have been involved in the murders.”
BACKGROUND
On April 22, 1994, Manuel Aguirre Jr. found his 73-year-old father and his 65-year-old mother stabbed to death in their home in South Odessa. Manuel Sr., who was recovering from quintuple bypass surgery, was found in his easy chair suffering from 11 stab wounds. Merced Aguirre was found in the kitchen suffering from so many wounds a medical examiner was unable to specify the number.
Gonzales immediately became a suspect because he was the Aguirres’ next-door neighbor and the Aguirres suspected him of earlier break-ins. They’d expressed fear of the known gang leader.
Gonzales and three members of his gang were questioned by police and Gonzales was arrested on May 7, 1994. Authorities said items stolen from the Aguirres’ home were found in the possession of several people who said they’d bought them from Gonzales and his fingerprints were found on them. Lead Detective Sgt. Snow Robertson would later testify the same type of red peppers found scattered around Merced Aguirres’ body were also found in a bowl at Gonzales’ home.
In addition, jurors heard testimony that a knife found at Gonzales’ house was consistent with the victims’ wounds and Gonzales confessed to a detention center officer.
The jury convicted Gonzales, who earned his nickname due to two spider tattoos, in December 1995. His conviction was upheld and he was re-sentenced to death in 2009 after his sentence was overturned.
IQ
The United States does not allow people with IQs 70 or below to be executed if they’re also unable to handle life’s demands and if there was evidence of issues before the age of 18.
According to court documents, prosecutors don’t believe this exemption applies to Gonzales. Dryden notes that Gonzales had an IQ of 81 at the age of 14 and 79 at the age of 20. While his IQ was 68 in 2021, “he had every reason in the world to malinger” by that point, Dryden wrote.
SUPPRESSION OF EVIDENCE
Burr contends prosecutors hid things about Robertson, the lead detective on the case, from defense attorneys so they couldn’t call his credibility into question at the trial. He alleges Robertson had a “longstanding history of abusing suspects and witnesses, lying in reports, and concocting critical witness statements at the time of Gonzales’ original trial and before his 2009 re-sentencing.”
However, Dryden notes the original defense attorneys had Robertson’s personnel file throughout the proceedings.
“(Burr) assumes, without any evidentiary support, that the information in these items was not disclosed and was unknown to his trial counsel because it was not used at trial,” Dryden wrote.
He also said that even if the allegations about Robertson were true, it doesn’t mean he acted inappropriately in the Gonzales case.
FALSE TESTIMONY
Burr alleges there were three instances in which false testimony was obtained during Gonzales’ trial.
The first instance pertained to the red chili peppers found at the Aguirre and Gonzales houses. Robertson testified a doctor told him the red chili peppers were very rare for the area, but Burr later found a memo indicating the doctor had said he could not conduct DNA testing on the peppers and he didn’t think he’d be helpful at trial.
Dryden contends that doesn’t prove Robertson gave false testimony because the doctor has never said he did not tell Robertson the peppers were very rare.
The prosecutor also said the other evidence against Gonzales was so overwhelming the peppers weren’t even mentioned during closing statements.
Burr contends the second instance of false testimony came when Robertson testified he believed a stain found on some clothing was blood that had been transferred from another item.
However, Dryden points out that Robertson testified he came to that conclusion from looking at a photo and he admitted he had “no idea how that got there.” Defense attorneys at the time knew that and they could have hired a blood stain expert back then, Dryden said.
Lastly, Burr contends Sgt. Rick Pippins’ testimony that Manuel Aguirre was attacked first left jurors “with a false impression that a single attacker committed the murders in sequence” when Merced Aguirre could easily have been attacked first or by another attacker.
Dryden argues in court documents that the original defense attorneys could easily have brought in their own experts to argue about the maatter if they’d wanted to.
DNA
Burr is fighting to have DNA tests performed on a few items that have never been tested before.
He contends:
- An alternative suspect was interviewed after the slayings and Robertson observed a cut on his left arm.
- Blood stain experts believe recently discovered stains inside a flannel shirt found in the alternative suspect’s closet after the deaths could belong to the alternative suspect. At least one witness has said Gonzales gave the alternative suspect the shirt sometime after the murders, meaning the alternative suspect was cut during the attack and he bled on the shirt after the fact. Blood on the outside of the shirt has already been matched to the Aguirres.
- Blood stain experts believe blood drops found on tile in the Aguirres’ house and on Merced Aguirres’ housecoat likely came from the killer and theoretically could be linked to the alternative suspect.
- When told by a defense investigator in October 2021 that blood found inside the house did not match the Aguirres or Gonzales the alternative suspect replied “that blood is probably mine.”
- In August 2021, a new witness told a defense investigator the alternative suspect confessed to murdering Merced Aguirre, but he hadn’t come forward because he “was too concerned” about his own problems. Plus, he’d spent several years in state and federal prison.
- Another witness has said the alternative suspect confessed to him that he and another man went to the house to steal guns and ended up killing the Aguirres.
Dryden, the prosecutor, however argues that Burr is relying on “affidavits from non-credible sources who recant prior statements or outright fabricate and who have been available for investigation for decades.”
At least two of the witnesses are felons, including the alternative suspect who allegedly said the “blood is probably mine,” Dryden wrote.
“(He) is the least credible person (Burr) could have chosen to support his claim of innocence because he has given multiple and wildly varying stories about his supposed role in the crime, most of which are not believable,” Dryden wrote.
Plus, “blood on the inside of the shirt states nothing about who wore it. In other words, it is still consistent with (Gonzales) wearing it,” Dryden wrote.
FINGERPRINTS
Burr also states in court documents that Odessa Police Department Crime Scene Unit Supervisor Stephanie Bothwell recently found 136 latent fingerprint cards in a storage box. They are prints that were collected from the victims’ home and more than 60 fingerprints are suitable for comparison purposes.
In court documents asking for the execution to be stayed, Burr said it will take months to compare the fingerprints to other known fingerprints.
UNJUST
Dryden has argued in court documents it’s unfair to continue to drag out the proceedings any longer.
It’s been more than 26 years since the trial, 23 years since the first direct appeal and more than 11 years since Gonzales’ last direct appeal, he noted.
The defense witnesses are now describing “events that cannot be corroborated because much of it is hearsay and refuted by other evidence in the record” and even if true, “this information could have been obtained long ago. Most of these persons…were interviewed long ago and on multiple occasions, including in 1994/1995 and 2000.”
Many, many of the issues being raised now could have been raised anytime over the last 20 years, Dryden said.
Lastly, because it has been so long, there’s no guarantee original witnesses would even be available for court hearings and even if they were, their memories have likely faded, Dryden said.
The prosecutor also wrote, that Burr “also glances over the fact that the re-sentencing proved to be even more inculpatory because Martha Reyes testified that (Gonzales) went over to the Aguirres’ house, came back covered in blood and carrying a VCR and knife. Any strategy of an alternative theory of the crime disappeared with her testimony.”
FAMILY
Rick Aguirre, the second oldest of the Aguirres’ four sons, said the family was incredibly disappointed by the stay of execution.
He, his two surviving brothers, and at least three other family members had planned to attend Tuesday’s execution.
“It’s time for him to be executed,” Aguirre, 66, said in a phone interview before the stay was imposed. “He’s never shown any remorse and he’s always been so hateful at the hearings and at the trial.”
The San Antonio resident bemoaned the fact his parents have received so little attention compared to Gonzales.
“Throughout this whole process they’ve been pushed to the back,” Aguirre said.
His parents grew up and got married in Marfa, Aguirre said.
His father was the third of seven boys in his family and was forced to drop out of school in the fourth grade when their mother died.
Manuel Sr. enlisted in the U.S. Army twice and served during World War II.
His mother was the second of five children and she graduated from Marfa High School in 1947. She married his father in 1950. After their fourth child, Fernando, was in school she returned to Sul Ross State University to obtain her degree, Aguirre said.
His father was a mechanic for TU Electric Company for 26 years before retiring in 1983 and his mom was an accounting clerk for the City of Odessa’s sanitation department until her retirement in 1991. His mother was known on the southside for her willingness to do neighbors’ income tax returns for free, he said.
His parents were active members of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, parent-teachers associations and booster clubs, Aguirre said. They attended every single one of their children’s recitals and games, he said.
“They were supportive of anything we wanted to do,” he said.
His parents were inseparable and they loved to travel and frequently went out to eat, Aguirre said.
Just four days before they died, Aguirre said the entire family gathered in Pecos for his maternal grandmother’s 91st birthday. They also made flight arrangements for San Antonio to watch Fernando graduate from medical school in May.
“We never saw them argue or raise their voices at each other,” he said. “Each of them was the other’s other half. They were just always in sync.”
His parents have missed out on so much over the years, Aguirre said.
“We hope this finally comes to an end so we can breathe a sigh of relief and say ‘Justice has been served,’” Aguirre said.
