Death Row Honduran Man Loses Appeal

HOUSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has rejected an appeal from a Honduran man on Texas death row for beating and strangling a Houston woman during a robbery at her home more than 20 years ago.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late Tuesday ruled against 46-year-old Carlos Ayestas.

His attorneys argued that his trial lawyers in 1997 were deficient for failing to bring his relatives from Honduras to testify for him. They also argued lawyers missed a memo in the prosecution file they considered improper that said prosecutors should use the fact Ayestas was not a U.S. citizen as a reason for seeking the death penalty against him.

A Harris County jury took 12 minutes to decide Ayestas should die for murdering 67-year-old Santiaga Pareque in the September 1995 robbery.