San Antonio's infamous Lovers Lane killer died unloved last night, with nobody in the execution chamber to support him as he was executed for the 2003 murder of a man who was shot to death during a bungled robbery, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"In his final statement, Juan Castillo said, 'to everyone who has been there for me, you know who you war, see you on the other side'," prison spokesman Robert Hurst told News Radio 1200 WOAI. "He did not apologize to the victims' family, who were witnesses."
Castillo was executed after Gov. Abbott refused a last minute request for clemency from a public defender group which had claimed to have new evidence that would have countered the evidence that resulted in Castillo's convicted.
"Castillo's girlfriend was (victim Tommy) Garcia's ex girlfriend at the time," Hurst said. "She had coerced him to drive to a Lover's Lane area with the promise of sex and drugs. Once there, Castillo and an accomplice pulled Garcia out of his car and shot him several times."
While there was no physical evidence connecting Castillo to the murder, prosecutors relied on the testimony of the woman and two other accomplices, both of whom agreed to plea bargains, and the testimony of a jail house snitch, who said Castillo told him he had committed the crime.
Castillo was so convinced that he would not be convicted of Garcia's murder, he turned down a plea agreement that would have spared his life.
It was the sixth execution in Texas this year, the most of any state.
PHOTO: TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE