Execution Report: George Cordova

George Cordova, 39, was executed by lethal injection on 10 February 1999 in Huntsville, Texas for the murder and robbery of a man whose date was robbed and raped.

After midnight on Saturday, 4 August 1979, Cordova, then 20, pulled up behind a car parked in Espada Park in San Antonio. He approached the driver, Joey Hernandez, 19, and asked if he had any oil, and Hernandez answered that he did not. Cordova left.

At around 2:00 a.m., Cordova returned with his two juvenile brothers and Manuel Villanueva, 19. When Hernandez saw them, he tried to start the engine, but one of the men struck him in the face, and then his door was opened and he was pulled outside. Cordova beat him in the head with an iron tire tool. Villanueva stabbed him in the neck. Cordova then grabbed West by the wrist and took her into the woods. He threatened to do to her what he did to Hernandez. The men forced her to the ground, face down. Cordova placed the tire iron next to her face and threatened her again. The men undressed her and took her watch and necklace. Cordova, Villanueva, and one of Cordova's brothers raped her. Afterward, they went back to Hernandez's car and drove it away. West got dressed and went back to where the car had been parked and found Hernandez lying face down in a pool of blood.

West ran out onto a nearby highway. San Antonio Police Officer A. L. Miller, who had completed his shift and was riding home on his motorcycle, saw her and stopped. She told him she had been raped in the park by thugs and her boyfriend was hurt. Miller followed West to the parking lot, saw Hernandez, and called for paramedics, who pronounced him dead.

West told detectives that her attackers acted as though they were drunk or stoned, and that they smelled of paint fumes. One of the detectives found a beer can partly filled with spray paint next to the body.

The police department began searching for Hernandez's car. It was found in southwest San Antonio at about 11:00 p.m. A police officer familiar with that neighborhood suggested to detectives that they question Villanueva, a known gang member and troublemaker. Hernandez's car was found about 2½ blocks from Villanueva's house. Cordova's house was also about the same distance from the car.

Officers knocked on the Villanuevas' door and asked Manuel's mother if they could speak with him. While Villanueva was walking outside to talk to them, he dropped a bloody knife, which they picked up. He was taken to headquarters, questioned, and arrested. West's watch was later recovered from his house, and his fingerprints were found in Hernandez's car.

Villanueva initially denied having anything to do with the murder, but when he was confronted with the evidence against him, he told officers he and Cordova went to the park to drink beer and sniff paint. He said they spotted the couple in the park, and it was Cordova's idea to attack the girl. Cordova was arrested three days later.

Cynthia West positively identified Villanueva and Cordova as two of her attackers. She testified against Cordova at his trial.

Cordova was not connected to the crime by any physical evidence, but in addition to West's testimony, Leon Springs testified that he was at Villanueva's house on the evening of 3 August when Cordova came and picked up Villanueva.

The medical examiner testified that Hernandez had wounds on his face that could have been caused by a tire iron, but the cause of death was a stab wound to the back of the neck.

Cordova was first arrested at age 11 for tormenting a police dog. He had other convictions for burglary, robbery, and illegal possession of weapons.

In 1980, while awaiting trial for Hernandez's murder, Cordova slipped through a gap he had made in the bars of his cell and climbed out of a 4th-floor window on a rope made of sheets. This escape earned him the nickname, "Spiderman."

Cordova was arrested five months later in Florida and was charged with raping a teacher. The day before his trial, he was caught trying to saw his way out of jail. He was convicted of rape and sentenced to 30 years in prison. In 1981, he participated in a prison riot in which 16 inmates and a guard were injured. He was returned to Texas for his capital murder trial.

During his murder trial, bailiffs discovered Cordova had a key to his handcuffs.

Continued on Page 2