Garza left a trail of blood that extended to his family
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BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Juan Raúl Garza left a trail of death around Brownsville: a man riddled with bullets and dumped on a country road, men found slain in the Rio Grande and in Mexico, and two of his own brothers-in-law.
As the convicted murderer and drug smuggler was executed yesterday in Terre Haute, Ind., nearly a decade after his conviction, Shannon Rumbo stayed home in nearby Harlingen, her eyes weary as she answered the door.
"My son only lived 35 years," she said of Thomas Rumbo. "For 10 years we went through this, all these reasons why (Garza) should have extenuating circumstances. He did not give my son any. God will judge him."
The execution ended a case that had unearthed violence at every turn.
Garza, 44, was convicted of murdering Rumbo in 1991 by shooting him five times in the head and neck and leaving the body on a road. He was also found guilty of ordering the deaths of two other men as part of a marijuana-smuggling operation.
He was the first person executed under the 1988 federal "anti-drug-kingpin" law, which imposes a death sentence for murders stemming from drug trafficking.
Rumbo's role was allowing marijuana to head north on meat trucks he inspected. According to testimony, he became an informer after officials intercepted one load.
Prosecutors said Garza also ordered the 1990 killings of Erasmo de la Fuente and Gilberto Matos over the loss of a marijuana shipment.
Garza was linked to at least five other killings, some in Mexico. Those cases were presented as evidence in the punishment phase of his trial.
U.S. District Judge Filemon Vela, not an advocate of capital punishment, said he was obligated to abide by the decision of a jury that heard 11 days of testimony from 66 witnesses.
"I can tell you what the evidence showed - it was not for three homicides. More than that took place at that time, all resultant of drug activities," he said.
One of those witnesses, 45-year-old trucker Joe Garcia, said Garza killed his cousin, Eusébio Garcia Jr., who was married to one of Garza's sisters. Eusébio was about 35 when he was found dead just over the border in Matamoros.
Lethal injection wasn't enough punishment, Garcia said.
"I don't know why they don't have hard labor or something like that," he said. "It's too easy. He doesn't feel any pain."
José Maria Sosa believes Garza killed his brother, 20-year-old Bernabé, whose body was found in the Rio Grande near Rio Bravo, Mexico, in 1992.
Prosecutors suggested Garza believed Bernabé was an informer. Sosa said he suspects there was more: His brother had married another of Garza's sisters, a match Garza didn't approve.
Sosa said he pitied Garza's family.
"I would have let him live," he said. "Not because of him, because I know he got a young son and a daughter. The family are the ones that are going to suffer."