Guadalupe Esparza is Executed in Huntsville, Texas, for Raping, Mutilating, and Murdering 7-Year-Old Alyssa Vasquez

Thursday, November 17, 2011
San Antonio Child Killer Dies Quietly
Murdered seven year old daughter of woman he had dated
Jim Forsyth
WOAI

Guadalupe Esparza was executed quietly last night for raping and strangling the seven year old daughter of a woman he had dated, 1200 WOAI news reports.

Death Row spokesman Jason Clark says Esparza apologized to the mother of seven year old Alyssa Vasquez, who was in the death chamber to see Esparza die.

"I hope you find peace in your heart, my sympathy goes out to you, I hope you will find it in your heart to forgive me," Clark quoted Esparza as saying as the poison flowed into his veins. And then Esparza said cryptically, "I don't know why all this happened."

It happened because Esparza did it. Police say after Alyssa's mother refused to continue going out with him, he slipped into her apartment, snuck past a baby sitter, and kidnapped Alyssa. He brutally raped the little girl, mutilated and strangled her, dumping her mangled body near a dumpster behind the Pinn Road apartment where he and the girl lived.

The mother said she had met Esparza and had gone out with him, but she had dumped him but Esparza kept calling her.

Unlike other death row inmates, there were no last minute appeals to save Esparza's life, and he was executed right on schedule.

Esparza had a long rap sheet at the time of the murders, and he was a registered sex offender.

Clark says Esparza also thanked two friends who had also traveled to Huntsville for the execution.

"He expressed thanks for them being there, and then at the end of his statement, he told them to tell his family that he loved them," Clark said.

Esparza was the 13th person to be executed in Texas this year.

[Thanks to tireless reader-researcher RC.]