Mafia hit man is executed.

AuthorGraczyk, Michael
PositionNews

Byline: Michael Graczyk

HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- A Mexican Mafia hit man convicted of beating and strangling a San Antonio woman because she didn't pay the gang's 10 percent tax on her illegal drug sales was executed Wednesday evening.

The injection of Manuel Vasquez with a lethal dose of pentobarbital leaves Texas with enough of the powerful sedative to carry out only one more execution.

Vasquez was the fourth Texas inmate put to death this year, and at least six are scheduled for execution in the coming weeks.

Vasquez, 46, was pronounced dead at 6:32 p.m. CDT, 17 minutes after the drug began being administered.

The sister of his victim was among witnesses watching through a window. He never looked at her.

His own sister and a female friend cried as they watched through a window in an adjacent room.

Vasquez's lawyers filed no late appeals to delay his execution for the 1998 slaying of 51-year-old Juanita Ybarra.

Testimony at Vasquez's capital murder trial showed Ybarra had ignored the gang's ''dime'' tax on street drug sales in San Antonio, so...

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