Juan Segundo (murderer)

Last updated
Juan Segundo
Born
Juan Ramon Segundo Meza

(1963-01-25) January 25, 1963 (age 61)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Conviction(s) Driving under the influence
Burglary of a habitat
Murder
Sexual assault
Criminal penalty Death (2006; resentenced to life in prison in 2022)
Details
Victims4+
Span of crimes
August 3, 1986 –June 17, 1995
CountryUnited States
State(s) Texas
Date apprehended
April 19, 2005
Imprisoned at Coffield Unit

Juan Ramon Segundo Meza (born January 25, 1963) is an American serial killer and rapist convicted of the 1986 murder of Vanessa Villa, 11, in Fort Worth, Texas. Segundo was arrested in 2005 after his DNA profile was found to match semen collected from Villa's crime scene. He received the death penalty in 2006. Between 2005 and 2010, Segundo was also linked by DNA to three unsolved murders that occurred in the Fort Worth area in the mid-1990s.

Contents

Segundo received an execution date in 2018, but the execution was stayed because of questions over how Texas courts make determinations of intellectual disability. In May 2022, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals resentenced him to life in prison with the possibility of parole because he is considered to be intellectually disabled under the criteria in place today.

Early life

Segundo was born in California on January 25, 1963. [1] Around the time of his first birthday, Segundo moved with his mother and two brothers to El Paso, Texas, to get away from Segundo's abusive father. The family lived in a small apartment with no running water. Segundo's mother sometimes left the children alone for several days at a time, and Segundo's eight-year-old brother had to look for food in trash bins. The brothers were once placed in an orphanage before being returned to their mother. Segundo's mother later married an alcoholic who was abusive toward Segundo and his brothers. [2]

According to court testimony from his brother, Segundo fell down some stairs when he was a small child, striking his head and experiencing convulsions. Thereafter, according to his brother, he acted "kind of slow" and was "always in a daze". [2] He attended school until seventh grade. [1]

Murder of Vanessa Villa

Vanessa Villa (October 3, 1974 – August 4, 1986) was an 11-year-old girl living in Fort Worth with her mother and two siblings at the time of her death. She was regarded as being hard-working in school, despite not having mastered English, and was well liked by the staff there. [3] Vanessa had expressed fear at the high crime rate in her Fort Worth neighborhood. She wrote a note asking her mother to "take me from this place" and left it inside a dictionary, where it was found after her death. [4]

On the day of the killing, a Sunday, she had gone to a flea market in Dallas where she worked before returning home later in the day. That night, Segundo broke into the family home while Villa's mother and siblings were running an errand. [5] In newspaper reports right after Vanessa's death, the family was said to have left the home for 20 minutes, but subsequent reports said that the family left for about an hour. [4] [6] When they returned, Villa's mother found her unconscious in her bedroom. Three cousins were in the home but remained asleep during the attack. [4] Vanessa was pronounced dead at a local hospital in the early hours of August 4. [7] [8]

The following Sunday, August 10, the family held a wake for Vanessa at the family home. Segundo is alleged to have attended the ceremony. Vanessa's mother and two other relatives had worked with Segundo's ex-wife at a Lake Worth nursing home, and they considered Segundo to be a friend. [7] [8]

Subsequent crimes

Segundo's next known crime took place on October 6, 1987, when an unnamed woman woke up to find herself being fondled by him. Segundo physically assaulted her and fled as the woman's daughter woke up. The victim's daughter identified Segundo as a former coworker, and in June 1988 he was sentenced to 10 years for burglary of a dwelling in connection with the incident. Segundo was paroled in July 1989, but in 1990 he entered a woman's home while he was not wearing any clothes. When the woman woke up, Segundo attempted to choke her and then jumped out of a second-story window. The victim recognized Segundo because he had dated several women in her neighborhood. For that attack, he was sent back to prison from 1991 until his parole in 1993. [9]

Segundo was also linked to three cold case murders by DNA. The three killings took place over the course of nine months in the mid-1990s.

Segundo served five years in prison for driving while intoxicated. He was paroled in 2000 and released from supervision a month later. Segundo was released to a halfway house and then went to live with one of his brothers in Keene, Texas. Segundo became involved in a local church and married a woman from that congregation in 2001. [2] One of Segundo's stepbrothers said that their relationship had been strained before Segundo's imprisonment, but he said that they had grown closer since Segundo had been paroled. He said that Segundo had started a lawn care business and had stopped abusing alcohol. [9]

Arrest, conviction, and subsequent proceedings

While Segundo was serving one of his prison sentences, a blood sample was taken from him so that his DNA profile could be entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a database that compares the DNA of convicted criminals with evidence from unsolved crimes. In early 2005, Fort Worth forensic investigators were reviewing cold cases and decided to enter some crime scene evidence from Villa's murder into CODIS. [6] Shortly thereafter, they were notified of a CODIS match between Segundo's DNA and semen from Villa's murder scene. [7] [8]

Segundo was tried for capital murder in Villa's death. Testifying witnesses included a deputy chief medical examiner for Tarrant County; an expert on DNA analysis; an expert on child sexual abuse; and the director of the CODIS program. [13] Prosecutors also suggested that Segundo might be responsible for additional unsolved crimes, and they called Segundo's ex-wife to testify that Segundo had come home covered in blood one night in 1983. When Segundo would not tell his ex-wife where he had been that night, she searched his car and found an unfamiliar purse and a pair of panties under the passenger seat. [14] Defense attorneys attempted to highlight lapses in evidence handling. The deputy chief medical examiner said he did not know if photos had been developed from Villa's autopsy. One of the crime scene investigators said he could not find his notes related to the investigation. [13] Segundo was found guilty of Villa's murder. [15]

During the sentencing phase, prosecution witnesses included two victims associated with Segundo's previous assault convictions. Additionally, a 21-year-old woman testified that she had recently notified authorities that when she was four or five years old, Segundo repeatedly sexually abused her while he was dating her mother. [11] Defense attorneys brought up Segundo's difficult childhood, his head injury, and his low IQ. Segundo was sentenced to death when the jury found no factors in his background that would make life imprisonment a more appropriate sentence. [14]

Segundo's final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was denied in February 2017. On May 16, 2018, during the press debrief following the execution of San Antonio murderer Juan Castillo, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jeremy Desel announced that Segundo and another inmate from Fort Worth, Kwame Rockwell, had been given execution dates for October 2018. [16] Segundo was scheduled to die by lethal injection on October 10, 2018, at the Huntsville Unit, but the execution was stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on October 5, 2018, because of concerns about the methods used to detect intellectual disability in Texas. [15] [17]

On May 25, 2022, Segundo's death sentence was commuted to life in prison since he is considered to be intellectually disabled under the most recent criteria from the American Psychiatric Association and the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. He is eligible for parole in 2026 and is currently being held at the Coffield Unit in Tennessee Colony. [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

On October 26, 2001, twenty-five-year-old nursing assistant Chante Jawan Mallard murdered 37-year-old Gregory Glenn Biggs, a homeless man, with her automobile, in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. The force of the crash lodged Biggs into the windshield. Mallard then drove home and left the man lodged in the windshield of her car, parked in her garage. He died two to three days later, according to police. Mallard was convicted and sentenced to 50 years imprisonment for murder, but will be eligible for parole in 2027.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darlie Routier</span> American prisoner on death row

Darlie Lynn Peck Routier is an American woman from Rowlett, Texas, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of her five-year-old son Damon in 1996. She has also been charged with capital murder in the death of her six-year-old son, Devon, who was murdered at the same time as Damon. To date, Routier has not been tried for Devon's murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Massey</span> American murderer (1973–2001)

Jason Eric Massey was an American murderer who was executed in 2001 for the murders of two teenagers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brownstone Lane murders</span> 1992 mass murder case in Houston, Texas

The Brownstone Lane murders were the mass murders of four people at a residence on Brownstone Lane in Houston, Texas. On June 20, 1992, three men tied up six people and shot all of them in the head execution-style. Four of the six victims died. The perpetrators: Marion Butler Dudley, Arthur "Squirt" Brown Jr., and Antonia "Tony" Lamone Dunson were convicted of capital murder. Dudley and Brown were sentenced to death, while Dunson was sentenced to life in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Floyd Thomas Jr.</span> Convicted American serial killer

John Floyd Thomas Jr. is an American serial killer, serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murders of seven white women in the Los Angeles area during the 1970s and 1980s. Police suspect Thomas committed 10 to 15 more murders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Walter McFadden</span> Executed American serial killer

Gerald "Jerry" Walter McFadden, known as The Animal, was an American serial killer and sex offender who was convicted of the May 1986 murders of two women and one man in Smith County, Texas. He fled from jail shortly after his arrest, leading to the biggest manhunt in Texas history, with it coming to an end in July. He was later sentenced to death and executed in 1999. Years after his execution, he was found to have perpetrated an earlier 1979 murder in Oregon through DNA evidence, and authorities have since speculated he could have committed other killings.

Rodney Rodell Reed is an American death row inmate who was convicted on May 18, 1998, by a Bastrop County District Court jury for the April 1996 abduction, rape, and murder of Stacey Stites, a 19-year-old resident of Giddings, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Davontae Williams</span> 2004 murder in Arlington, Texas, U.S.

Davontae Marcel Williams was a nine-year-old boy who, in 2004, died of malnutrition at his apartment in Arlington, Texas. He weighed 35 pounds at the time of his death. Davontae's mother, Marcella L. Williams, and his mother's partner, Lisa Ann Coleman, were arrested, accused of depriving Davontae of food, and charged with capital murder. Marcella Williams entered a guilty plea in exchange for a sentence of life imprisonment, while Coleman refused a plea deal, was found guilty, and received a death sentence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Carla Walker</span> Victim of solved cold case

Carla Jan Walker was an American homicide victim abducted from a bowling alley parking lot in Fort Worth, Texas on February 17, 1974. Her body was found three days later in a drainage ditch 30 minutes south of Fort Worth.

Curtis Don Brown is an American serial killer and rapist who raped and murdered three women around Arlington and Fort Worth, Texas, between 1985 and 1986, though he is suspected of up to 18 murders. Convicted of one murder in 1987, in 2009 he was convicted of the two additional murders from 1985, based on results of DNA profiling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald and James Allridge</span> Executed American serial killers

Ronald Keith Allridge and James Vernon Allridge III were American brothers and serial killers who killed three people and committed numerous armed robberies in Fort Worth, Texas, during a crime spree in early 1985. For their crimes, the Allridge brothers were sentenced to death and subsequently executed by lethal injection; Ronald in 1995 and James in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Granviel</span> Executed American serial killer and mass murderer

Kenneth Granviel was an American serial killer and rapist who was responsible for the sexually-motivated murders of seven people in Fort Worth, Texas from 1974 to 1975, most notably the mass murder of three women and two children. After willingly admitting to the crimes, he was convicted, sentenced to death and executed in 1996, after several delays and challenges to his sentence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reginald Perkins</span> Executed American serial killer (1955–2009)

Reginald Perkins was an American serial killer and sex offender who was executed in Texas for the December 2000 murder of his stepmother. He was also linked with DNA to the murders of two women in Fort Worth in 1991, and he is suspected of killing a further three women in Ohio in the early 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Lisa Rene</span> 1994 murder in Arkansas, United States

Lisa Rene was an American teenage girl who was kidnapped from her apartment in Texas, raped over the course of two days, and buried alive in Arkansas. She was kidnapped on September 24, 1994, by four men: 23-year-old Orlando Cordia Hall, 21-year-old Bruce Carneil Webster, 19-year-old Demetrius Kenyon Hall, and 22-year-old Steven Christopher Beckley. Another man, 23-year-old Marvin Terrance Holloway, did not directly participate in her kidnapping, rape, or murder, but was present at times and provided financial assistance to the group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Michael Ervin</span> American serial killer

Joseph Michael Ervin, also known by the alias Joe Michael Erwing, was an American serial killer who was indicted for two murders committed in Texas and Colorado in 1969 and 1981, respectively, but has been posthumously linked to four others committed in the Denver metropolitan area from 1978 to 1981. Ervin was never convicted of the crimes, as he hanged himself while awaiting trial for the final murder.

Charles Edward Wooten is an American serial killer. Initially convicted and sentenced to life for two separate murders committed around Fort Worth, Texas in 1969, he was paroled in May 1992 thanks to campaigning from his father, Arlis, whom Wooten would kill during an argument in July 1993. Wooten was later convicted of this murder and given another life term.

Edward Lewis Lagrone was an American serial killer and rapist. He was convicted of fatally shooting three members of the Lloyd family in Fort Worth, Texas in May 1991, including a 10-year-old girl he had impregnated, approximately seven years after being released from prison for a previous murder. Lagrone was subsequently convicted, sentenced to death and executed for the latter crimes in 2004.

Juan Rodriguez Chavez, known as The Thrill Killer, was an American serial killer and spree killer who, together with a teenage accomplice, killed eleven people in Dallas, Texas during a crime spree lasting from March to July 1995, shortly after being paroled from prison for a murder conviction. For the latter crimes, Chavez was sentenced to death and subsequently executed in 2003.

Garcia Glen White is an American murderer, rapist and suspected serial killer. Convicted and sentenced to death for the 1989 triple murder of a woman and her two teenage daughters in Houston, Texas, he is also the prime suspect in two additional murders with which he has never been charged.

Robert Charles Ladd was an American serial killer who was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering a woman in Tyler, Texas, in 1996, after being paroled for a 1978 triple murder in Dallas. He was executed for the latter crime in 2015, a controversial decision due to his alleged mental disability.

References

  1. 1 2 "Death Row Information". www.tdcj.state.tx.us. Retrieved April 24, 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 McDonald, Melody (December 20, 2006). "Family pleads for mercy for convicted child killer". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ Hyde, Jesse (October 12, 2006). "Caught Cold". Dallas Observer. Archived from the original on May 22, 2018. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  4. 1 2 3 "Girl wrote secret cry for help before death". Wichita Falls Record News. Associated Press. August 6, 1986. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ "Man indicted in 19-year-old crime". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. July 19, 2005. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 Blakinger, Keri (October 6, 2018). "Texas court stays Fort Worth man's execution over claims of intellectual disability". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 Boyd, Deanna (April 21, 2005). "After 19 years, a chance for justice". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  8. 1 2 3 Boyd, Deanna (April 21, 2005). "Arrest: Suspect was convicted of burglaries in years after slaying". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved March 16, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
  9. 1 2 Boyd, Deanna (December 17, 2005). "Convicted felon charged with 1995 slaying". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "Police say DNA links 1994 slaying of 23-year-old woman to death row inmate". Lubbock Avalanche. Archived from the original on 2018-05-22. Retrieved May 22, 2018.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  11. 1 2 McDonald, Melody (December 19, 2006). "3 women recount killer's previous assaults". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "Texas Roundup Convict DNA". Temple Daily Telegram. Archived from the original on June 5, 2022. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  13. 1 2 McDonald, Melody (December 12, 2006). "Testimony in Segundo trial takes focus to forensic science, DNA". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  14. 1 2 McDonald, Melody (December 21, 2006). "Jury sentences Segundo to be executed". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Archived from the original on March 16, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  15. 1 2 McCullough, Jolie (October 6, 2018). "Texas court halts Juan Segundo execution amid questions of intellectual disability". The Texas Tribune. Archived from the original on June 5, 2022. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  16. ↑ "Execution dates for 2 Fort Worth inmates on death row". US News. May 16, 2018. Archived from the original on June 5, 2022. Retrieved May 22, 2018.
  17. ↑ "Texas appeals court puts execution on hold". The New York Times. October 7, 2018. Archived from the original on October 8, 2018. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
  18. ↑ Keller, Alex (May 25, 2022). "Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rules serial murderer ineligible for death penalty". CBS DFW. Archived from the original on May 25, 2022. Retrieved May 25, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.