Texas inmate set for execution for killing man in $8 robbery

Published 7:16 am Tuesday, October 6, 2015

HOUSTON — No late appeals have been filed on behalf of a Texas inmate convicted of killing another man in a robbery in Houston that yielded just $8.

Juan Martin Garcia’s execution is scheduled for Tuesday. He was convicted of capital murder for the September 1998 killing and robbery of Hugo Solano, a Christian missionary from Mexico who had moved his family to the city just weeks earlier so his children could be educated in the U.S.

Garcia, who acknowledges shooting Solano and is linked to a string of aggravated robberies and two attempted murders, insists he has been unfairly penalized because he didn’t take the witness stand in his own defense at trial.

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The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Garcia’s case in March. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, in a 5-2 vote, refused a clemency request from Garcia last week.