Death. Ruben Montoya Cantu (December 5, 1966 – August 24, 1993) was a Texan who was executed for a murder committed when he was 17 years old. During the years following the conviction, the surviving victim, the co-defendant, the district attorney, and the jury forewoman have made public statements that cast doubt on Cantu's guilty verdict.
The prosecution's case at the trial that convicted Ruben Cantu is summarized as follows: On the night of November 8, 1984 at approximately 11:30 p.m., Ruben Cantu (age 17 at the time) and his friend David Garza (15), broke into a vacant San Antonio house under construction at 605 Briggs Street, and robbed two Hispanic males at gunpoint. The two victims, Pedro Gomez (25 or 35) and Juan Moreno (19), had been workmen sleeping on floor mattresses at a construction site, guarding against burglary, as a water heater had been recently stolen from the work site. The two victims were sleeping in their work clothes, with their pockets full of their cash earnings at the time of the robbery. Cantu and Garza were carrying a rifle, which they used to rob the two men of their wristwatches. As they tried to take their cash, they were interrupted by Gomez's attempt to retrieve a pistol hidden under his mattress. Gomez was shot at least nine times by the boys' rifle, dying instantly, and Moreno was also shot as many as nine times by the same rifle. Thinking they had killed both men, the two teens then fled the scene. Juan Moreno survived the attack, and was able to leave the house and call for help shortly after the event, though he lost one lung, one kidney, and part of his stomach.
According to De La Luz, he was shot four times by Cantu despite no provocation.
The key trial witness, however, was Juan Moreno, the shooting survivor, who repeatedly identified Ruben Cantu in court.
The case went cold, and no suspect was arrested. About four months after the robbery-murder, Cantu shot Joe De La Luz, an off-duty, plainclothes police officer, at the Scabaroo Lounge, a bar near Cantu 's home.
His older brothers had been arrested on drug and theft charges, but despite several run-ins with the police, Ruben never was convicted of anything before the November 1984 crime that led to his execution.
RELATED: Missouri inmate executed for killing man over child support payments. Asked to make a final statement, Garza said he was sorry for causing pain to his family, friends and "especially police officers.".
Texas carries out the death penalty more than any other state. Garza was the first inmate executed with a new supply of pentobarbital recently obtained by Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials that would allow his and two other lethal injections scheduled for this month to be carried out.
Ruben Montoya Cantu (December 5, 1966 – August 24, 1993) was a Texan who was executed for a murder committed when he was 17 years old. During the years following the conviction, the surviving victim, the co-defendant, the district attorney, and the jury forewoman have made public statements that cast doubt on Cantu's guilty verdict.
Ruben Cantu grew up with his mother and father, until the age of 14, when the couple split up, with Ruben's mother moving 20 miles (32 km) away, and Ruben and his father continuing to live in a trailer in a crime-ridden south San Antonio barrio. The neighborhood was home to a loose band of tough kids called the Grey Eagles, of which Cantu became a leader despite his being rather small and in special-ed classes at school. By age 15, he was stealing cars for an organized auto theft r…
The prosecution's case at the trial that convicted Ruben Cantu is summarized as follows: On the night of November 8, 1984 at approximately 11:30 p.m., Ruben Cantu (age 17 at the time) and his friend David Garza (15), broke into a vacant San Antonio house under construction at 605 Briggs Street, and robbed two Hispanic males at gunpoint. The two victims, Pedro Gomez (25 or 35) and Juan Moreno (19), had been workmen sleeping on floor mattresses at a construction site, guardi…
According to Juan Moreno, and consistent with police records, he was visited by police in the hospital the day after the shooting. But, due to the severity of his wounds, he was unable to speak and could barely move. Five days later, in a second interview, Moreno was shown a number of photos. Cantu's photo was not included and Moreno did not identify any of the people shown in the photos. On December 16, detectives visited Moreno a third time and showed him another arr…
Shortly after being convicted by a jury of first degree murder and sentenced, Cantu wrote a note to the people of San Antonio saying: "I have been framed in a capital murder case. I was framed because I shot an off-duty police officer named Joe De La Luz."
On August 24, 1993, at 22 minutes after midnight, at the age of 26, Cantu died by lethal injection, becoming the fifth juvenile offender to be executed by Texas. His final request was for a piece of …
Sam Millsap, who was the district attorney presiding over the Cantu case, proclaimed himself a "lifelong supporter of the death penalty" in his commentary published in the San Antonio Express-News in 2000. In a December 2005 interview with the Express-News, Millsap expressed a newfound opposition to capital punishment. In that 2005 story, Millsap, an attorney in private practice at the time of the interview, says his decision to oppose the death penalty was affirmed…
• Thompson v. Oklahoma
• Roper v. Simmons
• Capital punishment in Texas
• Capital punishment in the United States
• Shaw, Theodore M (2006-05-11). "The Cantu case: We must face up to the mistakes". Houston Chronicle op-ed. Retrieved 2017-01-14. – Statement from the president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, in which he also promotes the NAACPLDF Cantu Case site, which includes comprehensive police and court records, investigative news articles, and video witness interviews.