Texas man executed for 2004 stabbing, strangling death

A man from Texas who was found guilty of strangling and stabbing a young mother to death over 20 years ago was executed on Wednesday. Moises Sandoval Mendoza, aged 41, was given a lethal injection at the Huntsville state penitentiary and was declared dead at 6:40 p.m. He was sentenced for the killing of 20-year-old Rachelle O’Neil Tolleson in March 2004.

Mendoza was accused of taking Tolleson from her home in north Texas, leaving her 6-month-old daughter by herself. The baby was discovered the following day by Tolleson’s mother, cold and wet but unharmed. Tolleson’s body was found six days later in a field near a creek, where Mendoza had also burned her body to conceal his involvement.

The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed all of Mendoza’s appeals earlier in the day, allowing the execution to proceed. Mendoza’s requests for a stay had been previously turned down by lower courts, and the plea to commute his sentence was denied by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Mendoza’s attorneys claimed that he had not received effective legal representation during the appeals process.

Before the killing, Mendoza had attended a party at Tolleson’s home in Farmersville, located around 45 miles northeast of Dallas. He confessed to the crime but could not provide a motive for his actions, admitting to choking and assaulting Tolleson before stabbing her. Mendoza’s execution made him the third inmate to be put to death in Texas this year and the 13th in the U.S.

In Alabama, James Osgood was scheduled for execution on Thursday for the 2010 rape and murder of a woman.