Bio

Rodolfo Baiza Hernandez was born on November 18, 1949. He lived in the San Antonio, Texas, area and was about 35 years old at the time of the murder. Before the 1985 murder, Hernandez had a criminal history. Court and state records show that he had prior convictions for aggravated robbery and had previously been returned to prison after violating parole by illegally possessing handguns.

In early March 1985, five young men from Mexico entered the United States by boxcar and arrived in San Antonio. They were looking for work and wanted to travel to Denton, Texas. Hernandez approached them and learned where they were trying to go.

Hernandez took the men to his house and arranged with his brother-in-law, Jesse Garibay, to drive them north for a fee. Garibay drove the car, Hernandez sat in the passenger seat, and the five men sat in the back. Hernandez’s brother Richard was also in the car at first, but he was dropped off at work before the group continued toward Comal County.

Murder Story

On or about March 7, 1985, Rodolfo Baiza Hernandez and Jesse Garibay drove five Mexican men from San Antonio toward Denton, Texas. The men believed they were being transported for work. When the group reached a secluded area in Comal County, Hernandez and Garibay stopped the car and pretended to have car trouble. One of them opened the trunk and removed several firearms.

Hernandez and Garibay then ordered the five men out of the car at gunpoint. One of the men tried to run, and Hernandez shot him in the back. Hernandez ordered the men to lie on the ground and hand over their money. He then moved from one victim to another, taking their property and shooting each man in the neck or back area. After leaving the five men bleeding on the ground, Hernandez and Garibay fled and returned to San Antonio.

Victor Manuel Serrano Cervan, age 20, died from his wounds. The other four men survived. Two of the surviving victims later testified against Hernandez. After the shooting, Hernandez made statements connecting himself to the crime. His sister Susan Garibay saw him watching television while swinging a gun on his finger. When a news report about the shootings aired, Hernandez said he was “a gunslinger” and joked that President Reagan had told him Texas was overpopulated and that he should get rid of undocumented immigrants.

Several days later, Hernandez bragged to a neighbor, Anthony Urbano, that he had shot the men and killed one. He later gave two handguns to a friend to sell. Police recovered the weapons, and firearms experts testified that the guns had fired bullets recovered from the victims.

Hernandez was arrested about six days after the shootings. On May 15, 1985, he was indicted for capital murder. On September 25, 1985, a jury convicted him of capital murder for killing Victor Manuel Serrano Cervan during a robbery. On September 26, 1985, he was sentenced to death. Jesse Garibay was later convicted of theft and sentenced to four years in prison.

Hernandez remained on Texas death row for many years. He had a scheduled execution date of March 21, 2002, but Texas Governor Rick Perry granted him a 30-day reprieve shortly before the execution because San Antonio police wanted to question him about unsolved murders. After the reprieve, police investigated information Hernandez gave about other homicides. His execution was rescheduled for April 30, 2002.

By the time of his execution, Hernandez had lost his lower left leg because of diabetes complications. He requested a prosthetic leg so he could walk to the death chamber, but prison officials said he could not use one because of a continuing infection. He was taken to the execution chamber in a wheelchair.

Rodolfo Baiza Hernandez was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, on April 30, 2002. He was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m.