Texas executes Michael Sigala

A Dallas-area man convicted of slaying a Brazilian engineer whose wife was also killed in an attack at their Texas apartment received a lethal injection on Tuesday, the third execution of the year in the nation's busiest death penalty state.

Michael Sigala, 32, was condemned to death for the August 2000 fatal shooting of Kleber Santos, 28, who was killed along with his wife at their apartment in Plano, a suburb of Dallas. Sigala also was charged with the wife's slaying but was not tried.

Sigala was on probation for robbery and allowed to leave a Dallas-area substance abuse treatment center for the day to look for a job when the slayings happened.

He was the third Texas inmate to receive lethal injection this year and the first of four scheduled to die this month in the state.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week refused to review his case and no new appeals have been filed.

Work brought Santos to Texas in January 2000, a month after he got married. His wife, Lilian, remained in Brazil to continue her veterinary studies at the University of Sao Paulo and was visiting during a school break that August.

Authorities said Sigala, from Plano, entered the couple's apartment and shot Kleber Santos in the head and then tortured Lilian Santos, 25, raping her before also fatally shooting her several hours later. Her hands were tied with telephone wire and a phone cord was around her neck.

Their bodies were found by a neighbor after Santos didn't go to work as a software developer for a cell phone manufacturer in nearby Richardson. Authorities say they don't know why Sigala targeted the couple.

Police arrested Sigala two months later after items from the apartment, including the couple's wedding rings, were found at area pawn shops and traced back to him.

Sigala declined to speak with reporters before his execution. After his arrest, he denied killing the couple but later told police he shot them in self-defense because Kleber Santos hit an accomplice with a baseball bat. Sigala also claimed he and his accomplice were at the apartment to sell Santos some heroin.

Authorities found no evidence Santos or his wife ever used drugs or that there was a second attacker.

At Sigala's trial, defense attorneys argued unsuccessfully for a life sentence, saying Sigala's drug use and upbringing contributed to his criminal activity, which began as a juvenile and included theft, marijuana possession and burglary.

When he was arrested, Sigala, an 11th-grade dropout, was on 10 years probation for a 1999 robbery conviction.

During his final statement, Sigala asked for forgiveness from the slain couple's relatives who attended the execution.

"I have no reason for why I did it," Sigala said. "I don't understand why I did it. I hope that you can live the rest of your lives without hate."

As the drugs took effect, he snored at least once and then gasped. Nine minutes later, at 6:20 p.m. CST, he was pronounced dead.

On a day that Texans went to the polls to vote [March 2, 2010], Texas executed the 450th person since 1982 and the 211th person since Governor Rick Perry took office in 2000.

Source: AP, March 2, 2010