Texas executes man for killing 12-year-old boy

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A South Texas man was executed Wednesday for the 1998 slaying of a 12-year-old boy whose blood the convicted killer said he drank after beating the seventh-grader with a pipe and slitting his throat.

Pablo Lucio Vasquez told police he was drunk and high when voices convinced him to kill David Cardenas in Donna, a Texas border town about 225 miles south of San Antonio. He also told detectives in a videotaped statement he drank some of the boy's blood.

Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Vasquez, 38, told relatives watching through a window that he loved them and thanked them for being there, then turned his head to look through an adjacent window where four of his victim's relatives stood.

"I'm sorry to David's family," he said. "This is the only way that I can be forgiven. You got your justice right here."

As the lethal dose of pentobarbital began taking effect, he said he was a little dizzy. "See you on the other side," he said, raising his head off the gurney pillow and looking toward two of his sisters, a brother-in-law and a cousin.

He snorted loudly once, then dropped his head back to the pillow and took a few quiet breaths before all movement stopped.

He was pronounced dead 24 minutes later at 6:35 p.m.