Convicted killer Rodrigo Hernandez has been executed in Texas for the abduction, rape and strangulation of a 38-year-old woman in San Antonio 18 years ago.
The 38-year-old Hernandez received lethal injection for killing Susan Verstegen more than two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal. She was attacked behind a supermarket where she was working. Her body was found dumped in a garbage barrel behind a San Antonio church.
The 1994 slaying went unsolved for eight years until Hernandez, as a requirement for parole from a Michigan prison, submitted a DNA sample that went into a national database. The DNA linked him to her death.
DNA more recently also tied Hernandez to a 1991 slaying in Michigan.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
