Death row inmate Juan Garcia is photographed in a visiting cage at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Polunsky Unit during an interview on Sept. 2, 2015 (AP Photo/Mike Graczyk)
The crime itself lasted only a matter of seconds. But the pain and consequences stretched out for more than 17 years.
On Sept. 17, 1998, Juan Martin Garcia fatally shot Hugo Solano during a robbery. Garcia was a 18-year-old gang member with a long rap sheet and a reputation for violence. Solano was a Christian missionary who had just moved from Mexico to Houston to raise his two children in the United States.
For killing a good man, Garcia garnered just $8. He was caught 11 days later, convicted of murder, and sentenced to die.
On Tuesday evening, the heinous crime came full circle.
Garcia, now 35, lay on a gurney in a Texas execution chamber and used his final words to try to make peace with what he had done.
As real tears rolled down over the teardrop tattoos already at the corner of his eyes, he spoke to Ana Solano, Hugo's widow, and her daughter.
"The harm that I did to your dad and husband - I hope this brings you closure," he said, his voice breaking, according to the Associated Press. "I never wanted to hurt any of you all."
For almost two decades, Garcia had made excuses for the murder. Now he was apologizing.
But could Ana forgive him?
Fifteen years ago, the answer was unclear.
On Feb. 21, 2000, Ana Solano took the stand in a Houston courtroom. Days earlier, a jury had found Garcia guilty of murdering her husband. Jurors had heard how Garcia was a teenage gangster with a record of theft, trespassing and assault. As a student, he had made a "terroristic threat" against one of his teachers.
Jurors also heard how Garcia and fellow gang members went on a brazen robbery spree in weeks before the murder, terrorizing Houston residents and seriously injuring several victims.
And they heard how Garcia rapped on the glass of Solano's truck window with his gun, just as the missionary was on his way to work on Sept. 17, 1998.
What happened next has been disputed ever since. Prosecutors said Garcia demanded Solano's money. When he refused, Garcia shot him three times and took his wallet - with only $8 in it.
In a videotaped confession, Garcia said he didn't mean to shoot Solano but pulled the trigger in a moment of panic. He was scared, he told police officers, and so was Solano.
"When we were leaving he still kept on talking to me," Garcia said in his confession, according to a Houston Chronicle article on the trial. "He was asking for help in Spanish."
"I beg of you, please don't take my son away from me," Garcia's mother, Esther, tearfully asked jurors.
But when it was Ana Solano's time to testify as to what sentence her husband's killer should receive, the Christian missionary equivocated.
"I can't say," she said on the stand. "That is why the jury is here and there is established law. All I know is that my husband is not coming back here.
"My loved one. . .," she began before trailing off into tears, according to the Houston Chronicle.
It was hard to question the testimony of a grieving widow. After all, Ana had lost so much. She and her husband and their two kids had moved to Houston with hopes of a better life just two months before Hugo's murder. The slaying had taken a terrible toll on her family.
"In the beginning, they didn't want to go out. They just wanted to be around me," she said of her then-teenage children. "We were an extremely loving family. They loved their father very much."
Ana also had been tested by her husband's murder.
"I went into an intense depression," she told the court, according to the Houston Chronicle. "I did not want to speak to my family or talk on the phone. I knew if I continued in the same way, my children would suffer more so."
In the hopes of persuading the jury to spare Garcia's life, defense attorney Stephanie Martin asked Ana if, as a Christian missionary, she would rather see Garcia serve life in prison than face the death penalty.
"I feel badly as well for him," she said. "But to forgive your enemies is very difficult."
Jurors gave Garcia the death sentence.
For the past 15 years, Garcia tried to evade his sentence. He launched several unsuccessful appeals.
And in an interview with the AP last month, he gave still more reasons why he didn't deserve to die. He was "railroaded," he claimed. He was on drugs during the incident and thought the missionary was going to try to kill him.
On Friday, however, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Garcia's final petition for clemency.
And so it was that guards wheeled Garcia into a Huntsville prison's execution chamber on Tuesday night.
This time, Garcia didn't make any excuses. And Ana Solano didn't equivocate.
As the convict apologized for killing her husband, Ana and her daughter sobbed and said that they loved Garcia.
As pentobarbital flowed into the inmate's veins, Garcia winced, shook his head, gurgled and then stopped moving, according to the AP. Meanwhile, Ana and her daughter raised their arms in apparent prayer in a nearby witness room.
Afterward, Ana left no doubt that she had come to oppose the execution. Even murderers deserve to live so that they can teach others to avoid their mistakes, she said. "It's about God," she told the AP. "It's about Jesus."
As for the killer's apology, Ana said she had accepted it because it came "from his heart."
Garcia had not been granted the clemency he desperately sought, but he had received forgiveness.
© 2015 The Washington Post
On Sept. 17, 1998, Juan Martin Garcia fatally shot Hugo Solano during a robbery. Garcia was a 18-year-old gang member with a long rap sheet and a reputation for violence. Solano was a Christian missionary who had just moved from Mexico to Houston to raise his two children in the United States.
For killing a good man, Garcia garnered just $8. He was caught 11 days later, convicted of murder, and sentenced to die.
On Tuesday evening, the heinous crime came full circle.
Garcia, now 35, lay on a gurney in a Texas execution chamber and used his final words to try to make peace with what he had done.
As real tears rolled down over the teardrop tattoos already at the corner of his eyes, he spoke to Ana Solano, Hugo's widow, and her daughter.
"The harm that I did to your dad and husband - I hope this brings you closure," he said, his voice breaking, according to the Associated Press. "I never wanted to hurt any of you all."
For almost two decades, Garcia had made excuses for the murder. Now he was apologizing.
But could Ana forgive him?
Fifteen years ago, the answer was unclear.
On Feb. 21, 2000, Ana Solano took the stand in a Houston courtroom. Days earlier, a jury had found Garcia guilty of murdering her husband. Jurors had heard how Garcia was a teenage gangster with a record of theft, trespassing and assault. As a student, he had made a "terroristic threat" against one of his teachers.
Jurors also heard how Garcia and fellow gang members went on a brazen robbery spree in weeks before the murder, terrorizing Houston residents and seriously injuring several victims.
And they heard how Garcia rapped on the glass of Solano's truck window with his gun, just as the missionary was on his way to work on Sept. 17, 1998.
What happened next has been disputed ever since. Prosecutors said Garcia demanded Solano's money. When he refused, Garcia shot him three times and took his wallet - with only $8 in it.
In a videotaped confession, Garcia said he didn't mean to shoot Solano but pulled the trigger in a moment of panic. He was scared, he told police officers, and so was Solano.
"When we were leaving he still kept on talking to me," Garcia said in his confession, according to a Houston Chronicle article on the trial. "He was asking for help in Spanish."
"I beg of you, please don't take my son away from me," Garcia's mother, Esther, tearfully asked jurors.
But when it was Ana Solano's time to testify as to what sentence her husband's killer should receive, the Christian missionary equivocated.
"I can't say," she said on the stand. "That is why the jury is here and there is established law. All I know is that my husband is not coming back here.
"My loved one. . .," she began before trailing off into tears, according to the Houston Chronicle.
It was hard to question the testimony of a grieving widow. After all, Ana had lost so much. She and her husband and their two kids had moved to Houston with hopes of a better life just two months before Hugo's murder. The slaying had taken a terrible toll on her family.
"In the beginning, they didn't want to go out. They just wanted to be around me," she said of her then-teenage children. "We were an extremely loving family. They loved their father very much."
Ana also had been tested by her husband's murder.
"I went into an intense depression," she told the court, according to the Houston Chronicle. "I did not want to speak to my family or talk on the phone. I knew if I continued in the same way, my children would suffer more so."
In the hopes of persuading the jury to spare Garcia's life, defense attorney Stephanie Martin asked Ana if, as a Christian missionary, she would rather see Garcia serve life in prison than face the death penalty.
"I feel badly as well for him," she said. "But to forgive your enemies is very difficult."
Jurors gave Garcia the death sentence.
For the past 15 years, Garcia tried to evade his sentence. He launched several unsuccessful appeals.
And in an interview with the AP last month, he gave still more reasons why he didn't deserve to die. He was "railroaded," he claimed. He was on drugs during the incident and thought the missionary was going to try to kill him.
On Friday, however, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Garcia's final petition for clemency.
And so it was that guards wheeled Garcia into a Huntsville prison's execution chamber on Tuesday night.
This time, Garcia didn't make any excuses. And Ana Solano didn't equivocate.
As the convict apologized for killing her husband, Ana and her daughter sobbed and said that they loved Garcia.
As pentobarbital flowed into the inmate's veins, Garcia winced, shook his head, gurgled and then stopped moving, according to the AP. Meanwhile, Ana and her daughter raised their arms in apparent prayer in a nearby witness room.
Afterward, Ana left no doubt that she had come to oppose the execution. Even murderers deserve to live so that they can teach others to avoid their mistakes, she said. "It's about God," she told the AP. "It's about Jesus."
As for the killer's apology, Ana said she had accepted it because it came "from his heart."
Garcia had not been granted the clemency he desperately sought, but he had received forgiveness.
© 2015 The Washington Post
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