Bio

Ignacio Gomez was born on December 2, 1969, in Chihuahua, Mexico. By November 1996, he was living in El Paso County, Texas, near his mother's home.

Murder Story

On the night of November 22, 1996, a party was held at which Gomez's brother, Roberto, and brother-in-law, Joel Guillen, got into a minor scuffle with another guest. Later that same night, someone broke windows at the home of Gomez's mother in an act of vandalism. The following day, Gomez's mother told him about the vandalism and how frightened it had left her; Gomez, upset by this, wrapped a loaded .357-caliber revolver in a white T-shirt, hid it in his Chevrolet Blazer, and began driving around the neighborhood looking for those responsible.

While out, Gomez came across his brother Roberto, brother-in-law Joel Guillen, and another brother, Jose Luis, all of whom joined him in the Blazer. The group then encountered 16-year-old twin brothers Michael and Matthew Meredith and their 18-year-old friend, Toby Hatheway Jr., walking along a dirt road near Gomez's mother's residence. Believing the three teenagers were responsible for the earlier vandalism, Gomez and his companions got into a fight with them. Gomez then shot all three victims repeatedly in the head with the .357-caliber pistol, killing them. Gomez and his brother buried the bodies in sand dunes in a nearby desert area.

When Gomez was arrested, he confessed to police, describing the events leading up to the killings. He was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death on December 10, 1998. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence on direct appeal and denied his subsequent state application for a writ of habeas corpus.

Gomez's case drew national attention as one of a number of cases involving Mexican nationals challenging their U.S. convictions on the grounds that police failed to inform them of their right, under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, to contact their home country's consulate for legal assistance following arrest. Gomez argued he was never informed of this right, citing a ruling by the International Court of Justice on the issue. His case was reviewed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which in 2008 addressed his request for a certificate of appealability on this claim (Gomez v. Quarterman). U.S. courts ultimately held that the Vienna Convention creates obligations between nations rather than individually enforceable rights that could be raised by defendants in American criminal proceedings, and Gomez's claim was unsuccessful.

Ignacio Gomez was found unresponsive in his cell at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas, on the morning of July 21, 2019. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead of apparent cardiac arrest at age 49, after more than 20 years on death row. His attorney stated that Gomez had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and had been found not competent to be executed; he had no scheduled execution date at the time of his death.