Michael Sigala

Michael Adam Sigala, 32, was executed by lethal injection on 2 March 2010 in Huntsville, Texas for robbing and murdering a couple in their home.

On 22 August 2000, Sigala, then 22, unlawfully entered the Plano apartment of Kleber and Lilian Dos Santos. He killed Kleber, 27, with a single gunshot to the head. He then forced Lilian, 25, to remove her clothing and wash herself. Next, he bound her hands and neck with telephone cords and made her lay on the bed. He whipped her buttocks with a belt or rod, cut the inside of her thigh, and dripped hot candle wax onto her genitals. While Sigala tortured Lilian, he masturbated. He then shot her in the face and again in the side of her head, killing her.

After the murders, Sigala lingered at the apartment. He attempted to wipe his fingerprints off of everything he touched, and he cleaned the carpet where he had ejaculated. He also helped himself to a drink and watched television. He went through the apartment, collecting the couple's wedding rings and some other items. Finally, he left.

The bodies were found by a neighbor after Kleber failed to report to work.

Sigala was arrested two months later after several of the stolen items were recovered from various pawn shops and traced back to him. At the time of his arrest, he confessed to killing Kleber, ejaculating while Lilian lay on the bed, and stealing the couple's rings. He blamed Lilian's torture and killing on another perpetrator.

Testing of the semen on the floor next to the bed showed an exact match to Sigala. A firearms expert testified that all of the bullets recovered from the scene were fired from the same weapon. No evidence was found connecting another perpetrator to the scene.

Sigala later told police that he and his accomplice were at the apartment to sell Kleber Dos Santos some heroin. He said that he shot Kleber in self-defense after Kleber began attacking his accomplice with a baseball bat.

Authorities found no evidence that the Dos Santoses used drugs, nor of a second attacker. They were unable to make any connection between Sigala and his victims. They were apparently targeted at random.

Adam Quanah Lay, 21, was arrested for helping sell the stolen items, but he was not charged in the killings. Lay, who was on probation for a previous aggravated robbery conviction, received 35 years in prison for violating his parole. He remains in custody as of this writing.

Sigala had no prior prison record, but he had several previous arrests and convictions for theft, robbery, and drug possession. At the time of the murders, he was on probation for robbery. He had been allowed to leave a Dallas-area drug abuse treatment center for the day to look for a job when he killed the Brazilian immigrant couple.

In October 2001, a jury convicted Sigala of murdering Kleber Dos Santos during a home invasion, and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in January 2004. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

"I would like to ask for forgiveness of the family," Sigala said in his last statement. "I have no reason for why I did it. I don't understand why I did it. I hope that you can live the rest of your lives without hate." The lethal injection was then started. He was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m.