Carlos DeLuna

Carlos DeLuna (March 15, 1962 – December 7, 1989) was an American man who was convicted of murder and executed by the State of Texas for killing Wanda Lopez, a 24-year-old gas station attendant in Corpus Christi, on the evening of February 4, 1983.

Carlos DeLuna was charged with killing a gas station attendant, 24-year-old Wanda Lopez, on the evening of February 4, 1983, in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The young woman died from multiple stab wounds, apparently from a buck knife.

Lopez was killed while on the phone with the police, having just called 911 to report a suspicious person who turned out to be her killer.

The crime was particularly senseless because, according to the 911 tape, Lopez seemed to be giving her attacker the money at the time she was stabbed, saying "You want it? I'll give it to you. I'll give it to you. I'm not going to do nothing to you. Please!"

The crime was observed by two eyewitnesses.

The first, Kevan Baker, had stopped for gas at the Shamrock gas station.

As he approached the office to ask the attendant to activate the pumps, he saw an unshaven man in a flannel shirt inside the gas station struggling with Lopez and trying to drag her by her hair to the back of the station.

As he released Lopez, her assailant was seen by Baker, then he headed out of the station, coming face-to-face with Baker.

Sergeant Steve Fowler reported that Baker said the man told him, "I got a gun. Get back," but Baker testified in court the man simply said, "Don't mess with me."

Baker then reported the man ran away from the store, the exact direction in which he ran being a source of debate given conflicting wording from various reports.

In his police report, Sergeant Fowler reported that Baker told him the attacker "ran east from the store."

Baker testified at the trial that the attacker "ran in an easterly direction."

On the other hand, Sergeant Olivia Escobedo's report indicated Baker had said the man "fled off behind the station."

The original police radio alert from the scene (from Sergeant Bruno Mejia) reported the suspect was "northbound on foot, to the rear" of the store.

Police also reported several other bystanders saying they'd seen a man "running to the rear of the store."

Baker then saw Lopez staggering out of the station saying "help me, help me" before she slumped to the ground.

Baker attempted to help her, and went inside the station to grab some paper towels to stanch the bleeding until the police and paramedics arrived.

George Aguirre also witnessed the attack.

Aguirre stopped for gas at the Shamrock station at approximately 8 p.m. As he was filling his van with gas, he saw a man standing just outside the gas station store, wearing either "blue pants" and a "long-sleeved T-shirt", or dark pants and a white shirt with sleeves rolled up.

The man was drinking beer and playing with a knife like the one used to kill Lopez.

Nervous about the knife, Aguirre watched the man closely as he pumped his gas.

The man approached Aguirre and asked for a ride to the Casino Club, a local bar.

The man offered to pay for the ride and showed Aguirre a black wallet containing a "few" bills inside.

Aguirre declined, but was concerned about the knife, so when he went inside to pay for his gas he told the cashier, victim Lopez, to call the police.

As Aguirre returned to his van, he saw the man heading into the gas station.

Aguirre drove off and made a U-turn onto the adjacent freeway, and when he looked back, he saw the man and victim Lopez struggling inside the store.

Aguirre pulled off the freeway and drove to a nearby bowling alley to ask a security guard to call the police.

He then returned to the Shamrock at about the time the police began arriving.

Aguirre identified DeLuna that evening as the man he had seen with the knife, except DeLuna no longer had on the white shirt.

Aguirre was not asked to identify DeLuna at trial.

At around the same time, John and Julie Arsuaga were pulling into a nearby club when they observed a Hispanic man jogging towards the east, away from the Shamrock, in an untucked white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and dark "uniform-style" pants.

Both witnesses identified DeLuna at trial as the man they saw running away from the Shamrock gas station.

The Columbia University team documented numerous discrepancies in the various accounts from police radio alerts, police reports, eyewitnesses, and other bystanders:

Police arrived shortly after Lopez's 911 phone call ended and spread out across the area searching for the suspect.

The police radio traffic describing the manhunt reveals a chaotic search, with police pursuing several leads towards differing locations with varying suspect descriptions.

Since DeLuna's execution by lethal injection in 1989, doubts have been raised about the conviction and the question of his guilt.

An investigation published by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review in May 2012 has strengthened these claims of innocence by detailing a large amount of evidence suggesting the actual murderer was Carlos Hernandez, a similar-looking man who lived in a nearby neighborhood.

Hernandez allegedly told at least five people that he, not DeLuna, was the murderer of Wanda Lopez.

In 2021, DeLuna's case and claims of innocence were the subject of the documentary film The Phantom.