Alfredo Prieto, a twice-condemned serial killer with mental disabilities, has been put to death by Virginia officials after several attempts by his lawyers to stop or postpone the execution failed. According to many, who witnessed the execution, Mr. Prieto had no remorse for his crimes and was eager to die.
Alfredo Prieto, a 49-year-old from El Salvador, has been put to death in the state of Virgina. Prieto, a serial killer, who had links to at least a dozen murders, had tried to postpone his execution via his lawyers, who stated that he was mentally challenged.
Prieto, who had the choice between the electric chair or lethal injection, died on Thursday at 9:17 at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarrat after being injected with a deadly three-drug combination. Prieto did not confess nor ask for forgiveness for any of the crimes he was was convicted of, instead he thanked those, who supported him while he was on death row and requested that he be killed in a rapid manner. Prieto said, according to Virginia spokeswoman Lisa Kinney:
“I would like to say thanks to all my lawyers, all my supporters and all my family members. Get this over with.”
Clergy member Brent Epperson, who spoke with Prieto prior to his execution, would not say what was revealed to him. Just hours before his death, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rejected a last-minute appeal on behalf of the killer.
Attorneys were asking additional information on the drug or sedative known as pentobarbital, which Virginia received from Texas. The attorneys said the drug would cause unnecessary pain to their client. Lawyers also tried to postpone the execution by asking the Supreme Court to intervene because they had proof that Prieto was intellectually disabled, but the high court declined to do so.
In 2010, Prieto was sitting on death row in California for raping and murdering a 15-year-old girl when DNA evidence linked him to the Warren Fulton III/Rachael Raver case.
On December 3, 1988, Warren Fulton and Rachael Raver, both 22-year-olds college students, vanished in Washington DC, and their bodies were found on December 6 in Fairfax County, Virginia. It is believed that Prieto kidnapped the lovers and murdered them.
Prieto was also linked to the rape and murder of 24-year-old Veronica Jefferson in Arlington in 1988 and the death of Manuel Sermeno, 27, whose body was found inside a burning car in Prince William County in 1989.
Authorities say the serial killer is responsible for countless other crimes, but he was never prosecuted for them because he was already on death row. The last execution in Virginia took place in 2013 when Robert Gleason Jr. was put to death via the electric chair.
