El Paso man who killed child will be executed in December

An El Paso man convicted of killing his girlfriend’s 19-month-old child has received an execution date.

Rigoberto Avila Jr. faces lethal injection Dec. 12 in Huntsville for the February 2000 beating death of Nicolas Macias. Testimony showed the child was one of two he was babysitting in February 2000 while the children’s mother was attending a college class.

Evidence at his trial in 2001 showed he kicked and stomped the toddler so badly the boy’s organs were torn from his spine. In a statement to police, he said the attack was in response to too much attention his girlfriend of four months was giving the child.

The 40-year-old Avila is among at least nine Texas death row inmates with execution dates scheduled for the coming months.