A ‘vampiric’ murderer who slit the throat of a 12-year-old boy, drank his blood and then butchered the body is due to be executed tomorrow.
Pablo Lucio Vasquez, 38, killed David Cardenas in April 1998 in the town of Donna in Texas.
On the night of the murder Vasquez, then 20, was at a party with his 15-year-old cousin, Andy Chapa, when the pair met the young boy, the Mirror reports.
After the party, the three were walking home when Vasquez, who was drunk and high on cocaine, picked up a pipe and smashed David over the head, before cutting his throat.
The cruel cousins then took David’s body to a field, where they scalped him, cut off one of his arms and part of the other before finally removing the skin from his back.
After mutilating the body the pair robbed him and attempted to crudely hide the corpse under aluminium sheets.
Vazquez was quickly arrested by police and admitted to the murder, telling the officers that he had drank his victim’s blood.
Chapa later testified that Vasquez motivation for killing the boy was because the child didn’t ‘give him what he wanted.’
During his trial, Vasquez said: “The devil was telling me to take [David’s head] away from him. Meanwhile on a videotaped confession shown to the jury, he said: “One side of my head said, ‘You did wrong… The other side said, ‘Keep doing it. Keep doing it’.”
The Austin Chronicle reported that Vasquez tried to appeal his death sentence, claiming he had serious learning difficulties and was mentally ill, and therefore shouldn’t be executed. However Judges rejected the claim.
If Vasquez’ sentence is carried out he will be the sixth Texan executed this year, and the 536th since the state reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
More of a concept than a journalist, Tom Percival was forged in the bowels of Salford University from which he emerged grasping a Masters in journalism.
Since then his rise has been described by himself as ‘meteoric’ rising to the esteemed rank of Social Editor at UNILAD as well as working at the BBC, Manchester Evening News, and ITV.
He credits his success to three core techniques, name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake.