Execution Report: Juan Soria

Juan Salvez Soria, 33, was executed by lethal injection on 26 July in Huntsville, Texas for the murder of a 17-year-old lifeguard.

In June 1985, Soria, then 18, and Mike Lagunas, 19, asked Allen E. Bolden to give them a ride home from the Fort Worth Boys Club, where Bolden was working as a lifeguard and swimming instructor. Bolden, who knew Soria from the club, gave the pair a ride in his father's car. Once inside the car, Lagunas pulled a gun on Bolden and forced him to drive to a secluded area. There, Lagunas knocked him out by striking him with a rock, and Soria stabbed him to death. Soria later told police that he "bent down and stabbed the guy twice in the soft spot at the back of the head."

After killing Bolden, the two went back to the Boys Club and bragged to friends about the murder. They picked up two friends, robbed an ice cream truck for gas money, and headed for Del Rio, a town near the Mexican border where Soria had once lived. They planned to sell Bolden's Oldsmobile Toronado there for $5,000.

Two days later, Soria, Lagunas, and a 14-year-old juvenile companion were driving the stolen car in the Del Rio area and were pulled over for speeding. Police discovered the car was reported stolen and arrested them. Soria confessed to the killing and the pair told authorities where they could find Bolden's body back in Fort Worth.

Mike Lagunas pleaded guilty to aggravated kidnapping and is serving a 45-year sentence. No information was available on the 14-year-old who was with Soria and Lagunas at the time of their arrest. Soria was convicted of capital murder and received the death penalty. In 1994, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals removed Soria's death sentence, because it found that the jury had insufficient evidence to determine that he was a continuing threat to society. Prosecutors appealed the ruling, and the court reinstated Soria's death sentence two years later.

At the age of 18, Soria had no prior felonies, but he had been arrested once for vandalizing and attempting to break into a church.

Continued on Page 2