Convicted Killer Avoids Death Sentence After Jury Deadlocks

The man convicted of killing a San Antonio teenager and dumping his body in an Anthony, N.M., canal avoided the death penalty after a federal jury could not decide his fate.

Larry Lujan, 32, a member of the Barrio Azteca gang, was convicted in the death brutal death of 16-year-old Dana “Joe” Grauke Jr. According to court records, Lujan took Grauke from a house in San Antonio and drove him to Anthony, N.M., where he stabbed him several times and nearly cut off his head with a meat cleaver.

During a sentencing hearing in federal court Wednesday in Las Cruces, the jury was unable to agree that a death sentence was the appropriate punishment, so a judge will now sentence him. The maximum punishment Lujan can now be sentenced to is life in prison.

Lujan shook hands and waved to his family before he was taken away Wednesday.

A federal judge will decide his exact sentence within 75 days. New Mexico no longer has a death penalty, but Lujan was eligible for a death sentence because the case was tried in federal court

Investigators said the victim was transported across state lines after he was kidnapped but before he was murdered.