Alfredo Prieto: Serial Killer Executed In Virginia After Last Minute Appeal Nixed
Alfredo Prieto was executed in at the Greensville Correctional Center in Virginia on Thursday. The serial killer made a last ditch attempt at avoiding the death penalty by claiming he was mentally deficient. If the United States Supreme Court had ruled the convicted murderer was intellectually disabled, the lethal injection would have come to an abrupt halt.
Prieto was injected with a combination of three lethal drugs, including pentobarbital. The Virginia correctional facility was able to carry out the execution of the serial killer after garnering some of the hard-to-find pentobarbital from Texas, MSN reported. The immigrant killed nine people. Relatives of some of the victims were present at the execution, the Washington Post reports.
Alfredo Prieto reportedly showed no emotion as he was strapped onto the gurney before the lethal injection cocktail was administered.
“I would like to say thanks to all my lawyers, all my supporters and all my family members,” the serial killer said, before adding, “Get this over with.”
Shot a 22 y/o and raped her while she lay dying ==> Triple murderer Alfredo Prieto is executed in Virginia http://t.co/jA1BsLizgA
— T Bradley (@TBradleyNC) October 3, 2015
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Prieto came to the United States from El Salvador. Whether or not he was a legal or illegal immigrant is not known. In 2010, Prieto was given a death sentence for the Virginia murders of a young couple two decades prior. Warren Fulton III and his girlfriend, Rachael Raver, were found shot to death in the woods. The couple had been last seen at a Washington, D.C., night spot several days before their bodies were discovered.
Prieto was sitting on death row in California before he was tried and convicted of the Virginia double murders. In California, he was convicted for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl. Because the death penalty was more likely to be carried out in Virginia, California decided to extradite Alfredo Prieto and transported him to the Greensville Correctional Center.
Breaking: Supreme Court acts on final stay application from Alfredo Prieto: “dismissed as moot.” pic.twitter.com/eXe9FRtLQ1
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) October 2, 2015
Prieto was also linked to six other murders in both Virginia and California. The serial was never prosecuted for those crimes because a death sentence had already been levied against him, the Washington Post reported. The serial killer was the first inmate to be executed in Virginia in almost three years. The last death sentence to be carried out in the state occurred in January, 2013. Robert Gleason Jr.’s death happened in the electric chair, which is a lethal injection alternative open to Virginia inmates. He was serving life in prison for murder when he killed his cellmate in 2009 and was given the death penalty.
The serial killer’s legal team also attempt to stay the execution until Texas officials were forced to name the compounding pharmacy where the pentobarbital was made. The sedative is given at the beginning of the lethal injection process. Texas is permitted by law to withhold the pharmacy information from the public.
Prieto’s attorneys claimed that the pentobarbital was shipped because another sedative Virginia officials had planned to use to execute the serial killer had expired. The defense team maintained that the court should ensure that the murderer was not going to be subjected to “gratuitous and unnecessary pain” due to the medication used. The temporary stay was lifted after a judge ruled that the drugs to be used in the Alfredo Prieto execution would not cause unnecessary pain to the serial killer.
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[Images via Shutterstock and Twitter]
