HOUSTON -- A year after his killing spree caught the nation's attention, the train-riding Mexican drifter accused of killing nine people in three states has been sentenced to die.
A jury decided Monday on the death penalty for Angel Maturino Resendiz for the murder of a Houston-area physician."They found it difficult, but because of what we presented they didn't have a choice," prosecutor Devon Anderson said of the decision.
Maturino Resendiz had admitted to the killings and sought capital punishment over the objections of his attorneys, who argued that their client is insane.
When asked by State District Judge Bill Harmon if he had anything to say before being sentenced, Maturino Resendiz said he was tricked into surrendering to authorities.
"That police officer lied under oath, and I don't think that it's right," Maturino Resendiz said, pointing to Texas Ranger Sgt. Drew Carter. "He lied under oath."
Maturino Resendiz, who was on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List, surrendered to Carter on the American side of the border with Mexico after the officer brokered a deal with the suspect's sister. The defense said the family was misled to believe that if Maturino Resendiz surrendered, he would not be subject to the death penalty.
Harmon ignored the comment and told him an appeal of his death sentence was automatic. The drifter has said he would drop all appeals, which would mean he could be executed within a year if the review of his case finds no errors.
Defense attorney Allen Tanner said Maturino Resendiz had been tricked into surrendering on the Texas side of the border so he could be eligible for the death penalty, which Mexico does not impose.
"This is a case of where our government lured a sick man across the bridge promising him and his family he would receive humane treatment," Tanner said. "He received humane treatment and now it's time to kill him."
Maturino Resendiz was convicted Thursday of capital murder for the death of Dr. Claudia Benton, who was beaten, stabbed and raped in her home just before Christmas 1998.
"It's been difficult, it's been hard, but there's nothing I'll have to do in my life that's harder than telling my daughters their mother's been murdered," said the victim's husband, George Benton.
During the punishment phase of the trial, prosecutors offered details of the slayings, the most powerful testimony coming Monday with the prosecution's final witness.
The woman, whose name was withheld, testified about being beaten and raped along a Lexington, Ky., railroad line in the early hours of Aug. 29, 1997.
Maturino Resendiz emerged from the darkness as the woman and her boyfriend, fellow University of Kentucky student Christopher Maier, 21, trekked between fraternity parties. At first the attacker robbed them with a sharp object in his hand, she said.
Then, the drifter tied them up and dragged Maier away.
"Chris was saying, 'Don't hurt her, leave her alone,"' the woman said, fighting through tears. "He came over and hit Chris.
"I heard Chris gurgling and asked (Maturino Resendiz) to go make sure Chris' head was turned to the side to make sure Chris wouldn't choke on his own blood," she continued. "He did, and then said, 'He's gone. You won't have to worry about him anymore.' "
The woman said she was jabbed in the neck with the sharp object then left for dead.
The killing spree began with Maier, but it wasn't until the spring of 1999 that investigators began linking slayings near railroad tracks.
There was outrage when it was learned that Maturino Resendiz, already a suspect, was arrested by Border Patrol agents in New Mexico on June 2, 1999, only to be released into Mexico. He was tied to two later Texas slayings and two more in Illinois before Carter brokered his July 13 surrender.