Cuban native set to die tonight for role in 1999 Houston slaying

By MICHAEL GRACZYK

Associated Press Writer

LIVINGSTON — The late-night sounds of a car horn and barking dogs outside the home a few miles east of downtown Houston were familiar to drug dealer Jose Martin Junco.

They meant customers.

But Junco, known as "Yogi," didn’t have much of a chance on a night in June 1999 when his buyers turned out to be several men connected to a Hispanic prison gang who had targeted him for robbery. The heist was a test — to see whether one of them, Kenneth Isaac Estrada, had the courage to follow through and shoot Junco if the known cocaine dealer recognized any of his robbers.

But when the 28-year-old Junco was gunned down, it was the man identified as the leader of the group, Yosvanis "El Cubano" Valle, who bragged about how he emptied his 9 mm pistol — 10 shots — into Junco, according to testimony at Valle’s trial.

The Cuban native Valle, 34, is set for lethal injection this evening in Huntsville for Junco’s robbery and slaying. He would become the 21st prisoner executed this year in Texas.

The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Valle’s case this year. His appeals exhausted, his lawyers lost a petition last week to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles asking that Valle’s death sentence be commuted to life in prison.

"Nothing else remains for us to do," attorney Roland Moore said.

Valle insisted recently from a small visiting cage outside Death Row that he was charged with "a murder I never did."

"I’m supposed to be the boss of this gang," he said. "Yes, they’re going to kill an innocent man. But there’s not much you can do about it."

Prosecutors said the robbery was intended to raise money for members of the gang La Raza Unida, or The Race United, and their relatives. Valle, believed responsible for at least four other slayings, was identified as a sergeant in the gang, which he joined while serving an eight-year sentence for possession of an illegal shotgun. He’d been out about two years when Junco was shot and robbed of a cookie tin containing money, a small amount of drugs, pornographic photos and two rifles.

"I killed someone over a quarter ounce," Valle was quoted as saying by a witness who testified against him.

From Death Row, he denied ever killing anyone.

"My people turned on me," he told The Associated Press. "I know a lot of things that happened. But, you know, because you’re tough, that’s what happens to you. I can take this. Who made the decision to jump into the gang? Me."

Estrada was arrested after being identified as one of the gunmen by Junco’s girlfriend, who was in the house at the time of the shooting. Valle was arrested when his fingerprint was found in a car tied to another slaying.

Court documents say that Valle believed Estrada "had shown some weakness" and that he wanted to test Estrada by proposing that they rob Junco, who was known to have money and drugs at his house. Estrada, "to see if he had any heart," would have to kill Junco if the victim recognized him or be killed by another gang member, the documents say.

At his trial, Valle’s lawyers said that evidence couldn’t point to his involvement in Junco’s murder and that testimony against him was the result of plea deals that prosecutors made with accomplices.

Estrada, who was tried separately, was sentenced to life in prison. According to trial evidence, he shot Junco once.

Valle grew up in Cuba and came to the U.S. when he was 14 to join his father. That was nearly a decade after his father had been expelled from Cuba and came to the U.S. as part of the Marielitos immigration wave in 1980.

At his trial and in appeals, attorneys argued that Valle had been abused as a child living in poverty in Cuba, leading to his aggressive behavior, and then had difficulties fitting in when he came to America.

He wound up as a juvenile offender convicted of aggravated assault, was incarcerated in the Texas Youth Commission and then went to state prison for the weapons possession conviction where his gang affiliation grew.

"I’m at peace," Valle said from Death Row. "Whatever is going to happen is going to happen. God knows the person I am."

Three more executions are scheduled in Texas next week.

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