Gutierrez’s request for DNA testing denied

A state district judge has denied a request by Brownsville death row inmate Ruben Gutierrez seeking a DNA test that he claims will clear him in the 1998 murder of an 85-year-old Brownsville widow.

Judge Benjamin Euresti Jr. of the 107^th state District Court, issued his ruling Thursday. His ruling came a week after the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit also denied a motion Gutierrez filed requesting a stay be issued as he waited for a ruling from Euresti.

Gutierrez filed the motion for DNA testing in July 2021. This was the third time Gutierrez requested that his DNA be tested.

Gutierrez, 44, was found guilty of the 1998 brutal death of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison at her trailer home. According to records, he attempted to steal $600,000 that she had hidden inside her home. He has been on death row ever since.

“Throughout his trial and in the subsequent proceedings, Ruben Gutierrez has maintained that he did not kill Escolastica Harrison, and that he had no knowledge that others were going to assault or kill her. DNA testing could identify the actual perpetrator(s) of this crime,” the motion reads.

“Had exculpatory DNA evidence been presented to the jurors, they would have found that Mr. Gutierrez did not kill Ms. Harrison, did not intend for Ms. Harrison to be killed, and did not anticipate that she would be killed. Exculpatory DNA evidence would have established that Mr. Gutierrez was innocent of the death penalty, and the jurors would have sentenced him to life instead of death.”

The motion also states Gutierrez has always maintained that he did not commit the crime and no physical or forensic evidence connects him to it.

Gutierrez last year filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, alleging his civil rights are being violated because a priest will not be allowed to be with him in the death chamber on his Oct. 27, 2021 execution date. That execution was stayed.

A portion of that lawsuit states “Mr. Gutierrez’s request through the requisite TDJC administrative channels for a reasonable accommodation – to have a Catholic spiritual advisor (a) pray aloud, (b) perform Viaticum, and (c) touch his shoulder in the execution chamber until he is pronounced dead- has been denied,” the lawsuit states.

U.S. District Judge Rolando Olvera Jr. issued a ruling on this lawsuit May 18, dismissing it without prejudice. Since a higher court has already issued a ruling on a case similar to Gutierrez’s, this means the state of Texas and Gutierrez’s attorney will have to agree on what religious protocols will be allowed at Gutierrez’s execution.

A summary of Gutierrez’s capital murder case on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s website pertaining to Gutierrez’s case reads, “On September 5, 1998, in Brownsville, Texas, Gutierrez and two co-defendants entered the home office of an 85-year-old Hispanic female with the intent to rob her of the money she kept in a safe. The victim was struck repeatedly and stabbed multiple times in the head, causing her death. The subject and co-defendants fled the residence with a minimum of $56,000.”

Rene Garcia and Pedro Garza are listed as co-defendants in the case. Garcia, 44, received a life sentence. No information on Garza is available.

Prosecutors argued Gutierrez and two accomplices planned to rob Harrison of her savings, killing the woman when the theft didn’t go according to plan. Gutierrez has maintained his innocence, pursuing multiple appeals at the state and federal level seeking to have crime scene evidence tested for DNA. All of his appeals were denied.

Gutierrez remains incarcerated .