By Robbie Byrd
A West Texas man who kidnapped his ex-girlfriend and beat her to death with a claw hammer was executed Thursday afternoon for the 1998 crime.
Gilberto Guadalupa Reyes, 33, was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m., eight minutes after the leth dose began to flow.
Reyes did not look at the family of his victim, 19-year-old Yvette Baiz, as they stood near the head of the execution gurney, separated by glass and metal bars.
“I love ya’ll and I miss ya’ll,” Reyes said, beaming from ear to ear with a smile. He did not specify to whom he was speaking.
Baiz’s mother, father, brother, sister and uncle all stared ahead in silence, seemingly unmoved by the scene.
Reyes requested BBQ turkey and brisket for his last meal, along with a bowl of cheddar cheese and avocados.
On March 11, 1998, Barraz did not return home from a restaurant in Muleshoe, Texas, a town along the Texas-New Mexico state line northwest of Lubbock, where she worked as a waitress.
Baiz was found in the back of Reyes’ car, parked behind a store in Presidio, a Texas border town. Reyes had left the gray 1996 Mitsubishi hatchack at the Budget Dollar Store and crossed the border on foot in Presidio, some 450 miles south of Muleshoe.
Reyes, 33, was the 17th inmate executed this year in the nation’s most active capital punishment state and the second in as many days. Another execution is set for next week.
The U.S. Supreme Court in March refused to review Reyes’ case, and a federal lawsuit on his behalf challenging the constitutionality of the Texas lethal injection procedure was dismissed Monday by a federal judge in Houston. No additional appeals were filed by his lawyer.
“I think that’s what he wants,” attorney Paul Mansur said after meeting with Reyes on death row this week. “Just let it go.”
Reyes already was known to local police. A month earlier, he chased Barraz around town, took a shot at her with a rifle, wound up getting arrested and was free on bond.
“We certainly wanted to find him and visit with him,” recalled Don Carter, the former Muleshoe police chief. “I don’t think you have to be in law enforcement to figure that deal out. And the fact was we never could find him, which just made him even more so a suspect.”
Blood evidence found outside the restaurant where Barraz worked led police to believe she was attacked there. Before dawn the next morning, border police questioned Reyes as he was walking toward Mexico across the International Bridge at Presidio. He was carrying as much as $100 in coins but authorities could determine no reason to detain him and allowed him to continue into Mexico.
It would take another nearly three months before police arrested Reyes in Portales, N.M., about 40 miles west of Muleshoe. When picked up, he was carrying keys to Barraz’s car and home.
“The sad part about it was he crossed over by the time she was determined to be a missing person,” said Carter, now a captain with the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Department. “So we were just behind him, and since he got across the border, it delayed apprehension.”
Reyes at some point returned to the United States and acting on a tip, authorities arrested him about three months after the slaying in Portales.
At his trial, witnesses told of Reyes and Barraz having a stormy relationship. A police officer testified Barraz had complained about Reyes stalking her two weeks before she disappeared. DNA evidence from Reyes was found on the victim’s clothing.
A Bailey County jury deliberated about two hours before convicting him of capital murder. They took another two hours before deciding on the death penalty.
“She was a beautiful, vivacious, respectful young lady,” said Victor Leal, a former Muleshoe mayor who ran the restaurant where Barraz had been working for several months. “I regret the fact apparently he’d been stalking her and she did not tell me that.
“I’ve always looked back and thought if I had taken time, sat down and known her a little better, maybe she would have shared that with me and I would have done something like make sure she was getting walked out to her car.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
