Texas man to be executed for murdering toddler
A US man convicted of beating his girlfriend’s two-year-old daughter to death in 1997 is set to be executed by lethal injection in Houston, Texas, tomorrow night.
Robert Salazar, 27, was baby-sitting Adriana Gomez when he inflicted at least three life-threatening injuries on her: a blow to the head, a blow to her chest that left her heart on the verge of rupturing and a blow to her abdomen that pushed internal organs against her spine.
Salazar then abandoned Adriana in her cot after beating her and went to his mother’s house to drink beer with a friend. She was found by her mother and taken to a hospital, where she died a few hours later.
Salazar told police he accidentally injured Adriana after pushing her in the bathroom.
Salazar will be the sixth prisoner put to death this year in Texas and the second of four scheduled this month in the US' busiest capital-punishment state.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles yesterday rejected requests to commute Salazar’s sentence to life or to halt the execution.
