High Court Rejects Death Row Inmate’s Appeal

HOUSTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a Fort Worth man convicted of killing a 61-year-old grandmother at her Johnson County home nearly five years ago.

The high court ruling Tuesday, with no comment from the justices, was on an automatic first appeal following the conviction and death sentence given to 32-year-old Mark Anthony Soliz. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last month rejected a similar appeal.

Jurors in 2012 deliberated about an hour before sending Soliz to death row.

Evidence showed Nancy Weatherly, fatally shot during a June 2010 robbery at her rural home near Godley, was one of two people he killed during an eight-day crime spree. The murder weapon came from a Fort Worth home burglary.

Soliz does not have an execution date.