Renteria Resentening Enters 9th Day
EL PASO, Texas – Convicted child killer David Renteria was in court for day nine of his resentencing trial Thursday. He was sentenced to death in 2003 for the murder of 5-year-old Alexandra Flores, but last year his sentence was revoked on a technicality.
The jury was not allowed in the courtroom for the first hour and a half of the proceeding while the defense lawyers fought to allow a witness to testify about the amount of time Renteria would spend in prison if he is sentenced to life and not death.
The defense wanted the testimony admitted because they said it showed that with Renteria’s prior convictions of indecency with a child and felony DWI, the 38 year-old-would have to serve at least 70 years in prison before being eligible for parole.They said he would have to serve at least ten years for his DWI’s, 20 years for the indecency with a child conviction, and at least 40 years of a life sentence before becoming eligible for parole.
Defense lawyers argued that meant Renteria would be more than 100 years old before he would be eligible for parole.
The state argued that parole is always up to the parole board, and the testimony would be speculative. On that basis, Judge Mary Ann Bramblett deemed the testimony inadmissible.
After that, the jury was then brought in, and the defense called its next witness, Frank Aubuchon. Aubuchon is a former Texas prison official who used to work on death row in Huntsville, where Renteria has spent much of the past five years in a 60 square foot cell awaiting execution. He provided commentary while the jury was shown more than an hour of video of the Mark W. Michael Prison Unit in Tennessee, Texas. It is a facility similar to the one where Renteria would be sent if he receives a life sentence.
Aubuchon testified that the facility, and others like it, were safe, but under cross examination he was reminded of a convicted murdered who was able to escape from a similar facility in 2000.
Aubuchon was also asked about Renteria’s disciplinary record while on death row and whether he would be a risk to others in prison.
“Based on what I’ve seen in review of his records, he doesn’t have any history of institutional misbehavior or violent acts of aggression, so that would not be one of my concerns,” Aubuchon said.
Testimony is expected to continue tomorrow. ABC-7 will be in the courtroom and will bring you updates throughout the day at KVIA.com and on ABC-7 at Noon, 4, 5, 6 and 10.
