Domingo Cantu, 31, was the 28th inmate executed in Texas this year and the 82nd nationwide, the  most since 83 were put to death in 1952.

 Virginia, meanwhile, planned to execute a 31-year-old man later Thursday for robbing and killing a  couple in 1993. He was also serving four life sentences for four other
slayings.

 Cantu was convicted of murdering Suda Eller Jones in 1988 outside the home where she had lived in  Dallas for 60 years.

 Cantu insisted he was innocent. In a letter published on the Internet, the half-Hispanic, half-Apache former painter called himself ``an American Indian warrior held hostage in my homeland.''

 Evidence showed Cantu dragged Ms. Jones across her patio into the back
yard, hauled the 97-pound  woman over a 4-foot-high chain-link fence, and then beat, raped and sodomized her. Her head was  repeatedly slammed into concrete.

 ``You just couldn't find a worse crime,'' former prosecutor Andy Beach said.

 (source: Associated Press)

A convicted burglar with a violent history was executed Thursday night for raping and fatally beating a 94-year-old woman who was watering the flowers outside her Dallas home more than 11 years ago.

Domingo Cantu was pronounced dead at 6:23, 9 minutes after the flow of lethal drugs began.

In a brief final statement, the 31-year-old Cantu spoke in German and Spanish before switching to English.

"I love you. I'll be waiting for you on the other side," he said to his wife, who witnessed the execution. "Be strong. No matter what happens, God is looking over you."
Then he said the words "Jesus Mercy" 3 times before losing consciousness.

His sister, watching through a window a few feet away, waved an eagle feather, making the sign of a cross and then moving it in a circular motion.

Cantu was condemned for murdering Suda Eller Jones the morning of June 25, 1988, outside the home where she'd lived since 1928 in Dallas' Oak Cliff section.

The U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday rejected Cantu's final appeal and a request to delay the execution.

Cantu insisted he was innocent. On an Internet site dedicated to Cantu, the half-Hispanic, half-Apache former painter called himself "an American Indian warrior held hostage in my homeland."

"I cannot and will not lay down systematically for this `barbarity' and`madness' called justice," he wrote in a letter posted on the Italy-based Web site.

Appeals attorneys successfully petitioned this month to allow DNA testing of Cantu's bloody clothing. The technology was unavailable in 1988.

Cantu said the tests would exonerate him of the crime, but results showed the blood on his shirt and underwear matched the victim's blood.

Evidence showed Cantu grabbed Ms. Jones in the front yard of her home and
dragged her across her patio into the back yard, then hauled the 97-pound
woman over a 4-foot-high chain-link fence, beat, raped and sodomized her.

Her screams alerted a neighbor who called police, but by the time officers arrived Ms. Jones was dead. Among the battered woman's injuries were fractures to eight ribs on each side of her body. Medical examiners determined she died after her head had been slammed into the concrete repeatedly.

"The lady had lived in the house for 60 years and was out watering her flowers," Andy Beach, a former Dallas County assistant district attorney who helped prosecute Cantu, said this week. "You just couldn't find a worse crime."

"He was just a predator looking for a weaker victim," added Marshall Gandy, the lead prosecutor in the case.

Police caught Cantu near the house within minutes. He was covered with blood and feces and was trying to run down an alley.

At his trial, evidence showed he had been tied to thefts in school beginning at age 12 and was arrested early in his teens for taking money from vending machines. By his mid-teens, he had graduated to burglary, fought with police trying to arrest him and went to prison for 2 years after failing to live up to terms of probation.

A witness told how hours before Ms. Jones' murder, he assaulted her at a bus stop, tried to pull down her pants, then took off with her purse. The woman had little difficulty identifying him, pointing out a scorpion tattoo on the right side of his neck.

At the punishment phase of his trial, Cantu testified he had injected himself with cocaine more than 10 times the night before the murder. He also confessed on the stand to the assault at the bus stop.

During jury selection at the murder trial, he bolted from the defense table and tried to flee out a back door of the courtroom. The door was locked.

"I can still remember hearing the sound of him hitting that door and bouncing back about 15 feet," Beach said. "It's not a laughing deal whenever anybody is executed. But I have no problems with him. He's getting what he deserved."

6 years ago, prison officials said he stabbed and wounded a fellow death row inmate in the throat with a 13-inch stiletto fashioned out of a typewriter key.

Cantu becomes the 28th condemned prisoner to be put to death this year in Texas, and the 192nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment on Dec. 7, 1982.  Cantu becomes the 105th condemned prisoner to be put to death during the governorship of George Bush Jr.

Cantu also becomes the 83rd condemned prisoner to be put to death this year in the USA, and the 583rd overall since America resumed executions on Jan. 17, 1977.

                        (sources:  Associated Press & Rick Halperin)

    When he asked me for help for the DNA TEST and he also was asking for help in the Internet, I told him that I would help him and he was so happy and excited and expressed his happiness to his peers and family and spiritual adviser.

    So with the help of  some "sweet angels" (like Domingo called them) who answered Domingo's call for help: Michelle from England who donated $ 40.00 (forty dollars), and Irene from Columbia MO donated  $ 30.00(thirty dollars),and $2530.00 from working overtime which
I did gladly with no regret, got the $2600.00 for the DNA TEST and with the diligent and prompt action of his Attorney David K.Sergi who got Judge Nelms to grant the order for the DNA TEST.

    Michelle,Irene and I just answered Domingo's call for help and we did it  with the hope of saving Domingo's Life.
Sincerely Your Friend And Sister In The Cause "For Life And Justice"

Hermelinda 

Above texts from emails via Domingo Cantu's Supporters . . .

" I requested to one of my court appointed attorney's  that I wanted to use DNA Testing to show the Court, and State that I was "Totally Innocent" of this crime. This was when DNA first started  to come out, and   I  heard   it  could  be used  to help prove my innocence. But, instead I was denied this request. "
" If ANYONE can help me with my STRUGGLE for JUSTICE,  "PLEASE" write me soon because I need your help and the clock is ticking ."

Click for         Domingo Cantu's Synopsys

Click for      Continuing The Struggle   Click for     URGENT - NEW  From Domingo Oct 1, 1999 For All To Read    Click for      Letter From Domingo's New Lawyer To His Wife  Sept /99    Click for      Letters From Domingo To CCADP  Since Warrant Signed   Click for      The DNA Order

Click for    Dallas Morning News Oct 9/99 - Domingo / DNA Testing

Click for        Letters From Domingo - 1997 / 1998

Click for      More Letters And Legal Correspondence

Click for Domingo's Italian Homepage

Coming Soon Domingo's artwork  !

    Hello to everybody reading this!   I am very interested in seeking pen-pals
and making 'new friends' to help keep my mind busy. I am not looking for Romance. Only for friendship. If you are interested in forming a friendship with someone incarcerated on 'Death Row' then get your pen and paper together
(or your Typewriter) and write to me and introduce yourself. I enjoy receiving and reading letters from people all over, so I don't care where you're from
i.e. Over Seas or Stateside. I am very open minded and quite understanding.
I often speak from the very depths of my soul and mean everything I say from the tip of my heart. I believe 'friendship' is a lot more than just sharing thoughts,
hopes, dreams and experiences  in life. The type of friendship I enjoy is
"Soul Felt." If you are prepared to embrace such a strong soul-felt relationship them Itm the person youtre looking for. I enjoy sharing the essence of my being with caring people like yourself and expect the same in return. I do promise you one thing; If you choose to correspond with me,  it will be an experience you've never  known before.   Here is a little about myself so you can get a glimpse of who I am and my hobbies. I am a 31 year old Native American Indian from the  'White Mountain Apache tribe.'  I have been incarcerated for Ii years. I have a daughter who I don't know and have only met a few times since my imprisonment. She is now 11 years old. My hopes are to see her again and try getting to know her from within these walls. My hobbies are writing, playing chess,  exercising, drawing (when I'm not busy), and reading. I enjoy reading mostly anything, but some of my favorite authors are John Grisham, Dean Koontz, Stephen King,  Patricia Cornwell, and Jackie Collins.   Here is my name and address incase you are. interested in corresponding with me. Your age and race does not matter. Only that you are sincere in forming a soul-felt friendship. I look forward to hearing from you so please write soon. And if possible a picture of yourself with your first letter would be very pleasing.
   Take Care!
Sincerely "In Struggle"

                                          
           Here's my address:                 Domingo's wife, Brigitte Cantu  (married 1998)

                            Domingo Cantu #000924
                                        Ellis One Unit
                           Huntsville, Texas 77343 (USA
         Or Contact Domingo by email through his supporters :
                          domingo.cantu@iol.it