Texas To Execute Arnold Prieto Today Over Screwdriver Attack

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Texas plans to execute on Wednesday a man who was convicted of stabbing three people to death with a screwdriver, including his great-uncle and great-aunt, in a San Antonio home robbery in 1993.

Arnold Prieto's execution by injection is planned for 6 p.m. CST at the state's prison death chamber in Huntsville. If it takes place, Prieto, 41, will be the 519th person executed in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the most of any state.

Prieto and two other men went to the home of Rodolfo Rodriguez, 72, and his wife, Virginia, 62, who cooked the visitors breakfast. Prieto and Jesse Hernandez then used screwdrivers to attack the couple, also killing Paula Moran, 92, who was in the house, the Texas Attorney General's Office said.

The three ransacked the house, stealing cash and goods valued at a few hundred dollars, it said.

Hernandez was under 18 years of age at the time of the crime and could not be sentenced to death because he was a minor. He is currently serving a life sentence.

The other person with the assailants, Lupe Hernandez, brother of Jesse, was not charged.

As of Tuesday afternoon, no appeals seeking a halt of Prieto's execution had been filed. (Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Bill Trott)

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