From Hidden to Confessed in the Final Hour

Speaker 1: 0:09

Hello and welcome you to another Brevis Talk. This will be our last episode for this year and then we'll crank back up in January. But January we will not be talking about prison stories. We're going to talk about mental illness and hopefully be forthright and speak very clearly on that matter, coming from a Christian perspective. In the church and among Christians, that's not something that we do a good job in talking about, and so we will address the idea of stopping the stigma and hitting that head on and being honest and forthright and hopefully speaking in such a manner that people can feel the need and the freedom to get some help. It's an interesting episode, to say the very, very least. We have victims, and then we have a victim that was not known about and then that came to light. Let me read an excerpt from an AP newspaper article San Antonio, in the final hours of his life, condemned murder, luis Salazar taught not of the stabbing that led him to death row, but of another murder, one he had gotten away with. Encouraged to confess by his spiritual advisor, salazar told investigators that he stabbed a San Antonio convenience store clerk, leaving her to die in a beer refrigerator case on Easter in 1992, a confession that solved an old case in which he had never been a suspect. San Antonio police chief William McManus said Monday we were out of standstill until this confession. Salazar was executed March 11, for the 1997 attempted rape and stabbing death of a San Antonio mother, a crime that occurred more than five years after the clerk's death. His confession to the killing of 19-year-old Melissa Morales came just a little more than an hour before he was executed. Mcmanus said Salazar also confessed to a third murder in the San Antonio area, but investigators believed the victim in that case survived. Police notified Morales' family late last week that the long-dormant case had been solved. At least now we have some peace, said Alma de Leon, morales' mother, who helped fight for a Texas law requiring convenience stores to have surveillance cameras. We felt a lot of anger through the years. We just knew. We just had faith in God. We knew this day would come. Since Morales' death her family has celebrated an annual mass in her honor, praying for closure in the April 19, 1992 case this year's will-be-special, said de Leon, who cried during a news conference with McManus. De Leon said she is relieved that Salazar cannot hurt anyone else, but she wishes that she could face him to tell him and ask him why Police believe Robbery was the motive. Salazar had been given probation for aggravated robbery and convenience store holdups several years before Morales' death. The store near St Mary's University where Morales was killed didn't have a surveillance camera and because of her death and several other violent incidents at convenient stores, legislation was passed requiring cameras and other safety measures in Texas stores. The 1993 Texas law began requiring cameras, outdoor lighting and cash registers in clear view from the outside for stores to open overnight. And we read this story lined, and here is an excerpt from another Associated Press article concerning the execution A man who crawled through the window of a San Antonio home and fatally stabbed a mother of three as her oldest child tried to defend her was executed. Wednesday night, louise Salazar thanked friends and relatives for their friendship and fellowship and expressed love to his mother, brothers, sister and his children. I'm going to miss them and take them with me in my heart. He said from the death chamber of Gurney Thanks to everyone for praying for me. Salazar never acknowledged the family of Martha Sanchez or her murder. Sanchez's oldest child, eric, was among the witnesses. Her mother and sisters clutched tissues in their hands as they clasped each other's hands In herolt. From the lockered photo the man places the images of the family of Martha Sanchez and expectation. No, my heart is going ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump", salazar said, and then laughed. He asked for forgiveness and recited the Lord's Prayer when the drugs began taking effect. He asked for forgiveness for the sins that I can remember. He was pronounced dead at 6.20 pm, 9 minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow. Salazar, 38, was the second condemned murder put to death in Texas in his many nights in the twelfth this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state. Salazar testified at his trial that after a night of marijuana, cocaine and drinking, he thought he was in his own house just before dawn, october 11, 1997, and that Martha Sanchez, 28, and her three children were intruders. The woman's two-year-old daughter was asleep in the same bed and a six-month-old son was in a crib nearby. Sanchez's screams woke her oldest son, 10-year-old Eric, who was asleep in an adjacent room, and he went into his mother's room to see what was going on. He tried to defend his mother from the knife-wielding intruder he knew as the man who used to live next door and was stabbed in the chest as his mother yelled at him to run outside and get help, leaving a trail of blood. The boy pounded on the doors of homes until he found a neighbor to respond. Salazar had attacked his mother and him. He told the neighbor. Almost a year later the boy showed a Bear County jury the scars from his wound as he testified at Salazar's capital murder trial. A neighbor testified how she changed the clothes of the two-year-old who had her mother's blood all over her. Almost four years before the attack Salazar had pleaded guilty and received two-year's probation for misdemeanor assault for sexual attack on an 18-year-old mentally disabled high school student. And some four years before that he was given probation for four counts of aggravated robbery for holding up convenience stores. Richard Langios, one of Salazar's trial lawyers, said the previous convictions were difficult to overcome in the minds of jurors who had been asked to spare Salazar's life because he endured an abusive childhood. It was a situation where he had a prior sexual assault. Langios said I think her defense was that he got in the wrong house, that he lived a couple of doors away, but when evidence showed the phone wires to Sanchez's home had been cut, he said that kind of blew. That Yet a violent history, said Bert Richardson, the former Bear County assistant district attorney who prosecuted Salazar. Testimony also showed that when he'd lived nearby, he made sexual passes at Sanchez, whose husband had helped Salazar get a job at Kmart. Sanchez's husband was at work the night of the slaying. A neighbor who answered Eric's cries for help saw a man riding a bicycle fleeing from the house. Salazar called police later that day and said he wanted to surrender. I think the whole town was looking for him at that point. Richard said the guy was on probation for three or four aggravated robberies and it raped a mentally retarded girl. And so those are some readings from various newspaper articles. I want to take you to a place of just sitting, probably three, four feet from Salazar, as I did many, many times, many years, I visited him and give you an insider's story, so to speak, concerning Luis Salazar and how he acted and how we interacted and just what kind of person I deemed that he really was. I was his spiritual advisor for his execution and I would describe him as hopeful the months before his approaching execution date, which was March, the 11th 2009. As the days were marked off the calendar, he became more solemn and nervous. He was always a nervous person, I might add. He seemed to find it difficult to stay in one place. For very long he had a difficulty being still and staying seated and he seemed to be almost dancing in his chair from time to time. Very restless, certainly not a peaceful man or a man who had peace and comfort, but very discomfort, I might say A terrible acid reflux, and anything that he ate or drank seemed to cause him great discomfort. Therefore, he did not eat many snacks over the years that I had offered to purchase for him when we would have a visit where we sat down and had an open Bible before us. We talked about the Bible. We talked about family. We talked about life as I remember he didn't have any interest in sports, which is unusual for an inmate. We talked about life in general, those things that you talk about with other people. You can read and find much information concerning the crimes of Louise. It's available out there. You know how to search and google, as we say for it. But I want to tell you that lesser known, that much lesser known story that became the better known story perhaps, and it concerned another murder that occurred in the San Antonio area. During our visits that is, myself and Louise we talked about the Lord, of course, and the forgiveness that was only available through Jesus Christ. A witness to him. He always listened. I would say he rarely spoke during these conversations, but he did listen. He was very respectful and he was not someone who made a lot of eye contact. He looked down or, if he were looking at you, he was actually looking over you and more often than not I felt like he was looking over my left shoulder and that was sort of his way to look towards you, but not really to make eye contact. He seemed to be listening more attentively as the execution date came closer and closer. I remember pressing him on numerous occasions to speak from his heart. What's in your heart? What's going on? What are you thinking, louise? What are you feeling? Just share these things, and I do this with all the men. I want them to be able to confide and trust me as far as, if they have a problem, something I can perhaps give an answer to or at least an opinion. And it often seemed to me like he was thinking and he was feeling something, but he would not talk about it. He would almost take a step back, but it was obvious his mind was on something, he was fixated on something, but I had no way of knowing that. But I did press him on numerous occasions. I didn't know this for sure at that time, but as I look back now, I am positive that there was something going on, something was happening in his heart. Again, that's not something that I knew. That is looking back when you're speaking with someone or to someone about serious matters, and so where our conversations were all over the place, I read scripture. I never knew, and I don't know today, what his reading level was, louise's reading level. He never read in front of me, I never asked him to read, and so he did seem to perceive, he did seem to understand, and yet I don't know what his reading skills were and therefore I don't know how much reading he did. I don't remember him ever really saying anything about reading books or liking books or anything like this. But going back to that time of pressing, as I reflect back, I do believe it was God who was pressing me to press him. I remember some of those responses, as I would, as I reflect back, and I was pressing him, he would ignore me sometimes. I remember more than one time he got aggravated. He changed the subject, he stared at me. Not very often he stared out into space. Quite often he looked down and rarely made what I again would say was direct eye contact. He always seemed to appreciate the visits and never failed to thank me for coming to visit him. He was always greatly appreciative of that. I do remember that and I'm going to stop this part of the story where I'm sharing my interaction with Louise and read yet from another article that was published in the San Antonio Express April 6, 2009. This is that lesser known story that became the greater known story. A 17-year-old cold case murder was solved with the confession of a killer just moments from the death chamber. Louise Cervantes Salazar was executed in March 2009 for the stabbing death of a woman in 1997. But shortly before his death he was encouraged by his spiritual advisor to speak with Texas Rangers about other crimes he had committed. He confessed to the 1992 stabbing of a young female clerk at the stop and go at Woodlawn and 36th Street in San Antonio just an hour and a half before he was executed. San Antonio police, at his confession, solved the murder of Melissa Morales. Salazar had not previously been considered a suspect. After Salazar's death, texas Rangers contacted San Antonio Police Department cold case detectives with the information. After learning of the details of the capital murder, it was clear that the victim was Melissa Morales, a store clerk who had been stabbed 13 times while working at the stop and go at 2409 Northwood and 36th Street April 9, 1992, easter Sunday. Once the audio taped interview was received and transcribed, san Antonio Police Department detectives went about verifying Salazar's confession. Salazar gave details about the capital murder that could only have been known by the murder. These details confirmed that Salazar had murdered Melissa Morales during a robbery. On Thursday April 2, 2009, san Antonio Police Department detectives notified Melissa Morales parents, stephen and Alma De Leon, and her grandparents after Melissa Morales' murder. Her parents, grandparents and Carrie Wilborn lobby legislature to require all convenience stores to install security cameras. Because of their efforts, the bill passed. So I'm back on the other side of this article I just read to you and let's shift gears a little bit and let's fast forward to the date of Louisa's execution. The day of an execution, the inmate is allowed to have visits with his family and or friends from 8 am until noon. At noon the visits end and the inmate is taken from the unit where death row is housed, the Polanski unit in Livingston, texas, to the Huntsville unit, which is most commonly known as the walls unit in Huntsville, and that's a travel distance of about, I would say, 50 minutes or so. And after the inmate arrives at the walls, he is placed in a holding cell some 20 to 25 feet from the execution chamber. He will be able to make phone calls to family and friends during the afternoon and I have been to 30 executions, 28 of them at the walls unit, in fact so I know how this works, the protocol, if we could call it that, I guess. The inmate can have a spiritual advisor for the afternoon and his attorney is allowed somewhere from 30 minutes to an hour that afternoon if he so desires. Well, in 24 years of ministering on death row, I can remember maybe five attorneys visiting their client during this time, and most of them are out still working on last minute appeals. However, there have been a few inmates who said to their attorneys don't file any more appeals, I'm tired, I want to go home. I can also tell you, concerning the death row ministry, that if a man has been given false hope or someone has overspoken about his chances and appeals having success, that oftentimes that person is not processing correctly the possibility that they may die. This is not a good thing. I have known of a few that were absolutely sure they would not die because they believe the words of an overconfident attorney or a self-proclaimed religious prophet who had told them that God told them that they would not die. And I especially remember a young man several years ago who was very I was very, very close to him. He's just a winsome fellow. I got real close to him. This young man was saved and there's no doubt in my mind he's in heaven today. He has since been executed and he loved the Lord and there was definitely very, very observable, undeniable change in his life concerning who he was, his motives, his selfishness, the way he treated people just everything about him. He truly was a new creation in Christ Jesus, and I especially remember him because he was really confident that he would not die and he assured me that he was not going to die and of course I asked him where did you get that? Because I believed in my heart although I did not share this with him, I believed that he was definitely going to die. I'd read a little bit about the court pleadings and there really was no strong argument to stop his execution. It was pretty airtight as far as evidence in prosecuting the case went. But there was this older man on death row who set himself up as being someone who just sort of walked with God a little higher than you and I do. He was a prophet. He actually called himself the prophet and he would tell others what God told him. To tell them that he was up to. My opinion was not very good of this person. I always thought he was just a prideful bag of hot air and nothing more. I told this young man that you may in fact die and I wouldn't put my belief in that old windbag and the old windbag had assured him that he would not die. He just absolutely God has told me you will not die, you are going to get a stay and you are going to live. This execution date will not go forward. We're about a week or so from the execution date and this young man is really convinced. He's really brainwashed or duped or whatever you want to say. This guy's got this on. So I finally just suggested to the young man. I said do you believe that I have your best interest at heart? He said are you asking, do I believe that you care for me and that you've been helpful. He said if that's the case, the answer is yes. I said so. Do you really believe that I would say something towards you or against you because I didn't like you or didn't want to help you? And he said no. I said well, let's just linger a little bit along the subject. And so I suggested to him that he should prepare for the worst and hope for the best, but allow preparation for this execution going forward. He agreed to that and thought it was decent advice. Well, on the evening of this young man's execution, his attorney had filed some last minute things. You know, executions in Texas began after 6 pm. If there's nothing pending before the courts, and if there's something pending before the courts, if the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans has not ruled on something or the Supreme Court has not ruled on something it's pending, it's hanging in the air the execution cannot and will not go forward. Well, around five o'clock this young man was told that his attorney's filings had all been denied and that his execution would go forward after 6 pm. Because he had processed that and thought about the other side of it, he did okay. I think in my mind I was there with him. If he had been in total denial, what that might have looked like and how differently it might have looked, I don't know. I don't think it would have been good at all. Well, I said all that to say this Louise knew that his execution was imminent. He had no thoughts of a last-minute stay. He said he was going to die and he was resigned to it. There was something that was still left undone. Now I'm sitting in a chair, hour and a half or so before his execution. I'm sitting in a chair in front of his cell and I just said out loud I don't even I remember saying it. I don't remember, you know, I don't remember thinking too much about it. I just said it out loud to Louise there seems to be something that you haven't done. What is it? And I pressed him. I do remember pressing him. I pushed him and I didn't twist his arm, but I pressured him and he hesitated. And then he looked at the floor and then this horrible story poured out of him. He told it like he was in a hurry. He talked fast. He's just like he sped up his voice. He was nervous. At one point he quit looking at the floor and looked at me and he told me in a horrific and awful detail how he took the life of a young lady who was simply out working at this convenience store trying to make some money. Just a young, 19 year old girl, I think. In my mind I've seen the pictures of this young lady. She looked like someone who was just enjoying life, just getting started with life, 19 years old, and it's very troubling to see her picture and then to know the awful things that were done to her. I must have been in shock. Afterward. He told me detail after detail after detail. I mean minute detail. It was really beyond describing. I must have been in shock because I do remember much of the story, but there are major gaps to this day that are gone. I certainly don't go looking for those gaps and I don't want to fill those gaps in. I wish the rest of the story that I remember could be gone too, but that's probably not going to happen. After he finished telling me this horrible story about the murder of this young lady, he asked me if I would get in touch with San Antonio police and give them this information now that I knew After the execution he wanted me to contact the San Antonio police and to tell them what he had told me. I do remember getting very emotional and raising my voice at that point and I said something to the effect of no, you tell them, you cannot leave me with this story. Something that's very close to what I said. I stood up and said I'll find someone who knows what to do. It was just a few moments later that one of the state chaplains walked up. Actually, it's one of my all-time favorite state chaplain. Just an aside, I love this man and want to honor him. God blessed the memory of the late Larry Hart. He was at state chaplain, but the Larry went to be with the Lord in early 2020 and brother Larry asked me, as I stood up, what was going on. I guess the expression on my face told him that there was something in the air and I relayed that Luis had confessed to another murder and we did not know what to do next. Chaplain Hart said follow me, and he led me to an office. I sat and waited. It seemed like forever, but it wasn't, and over and over, I kept replaying Luis's words in my mind. I thought this isn't a television show, this is real. This is a young lady who must have been terrified. So many thoughts racing through my mind. Chaplain Hart came back and just behind him was a Texas Ranger, and this young man was focused. Please trust me on that. He asked me several quick, short questions and then he suggested he said this man trusts you Could you come with me and introduce me to him? And I said yes, sir. And so we went back to the holding cell area. I introduced Luis to the Ranger and I said Luis, tell this man everything you've told me. The Ranger pulled up a chair and they talked. I sat in a chair several feet away. I could hear the sound of their voices, but I heard nothing beyond that. Afterwards I would walk out with the Ranger and he said to me he said this is real. He asked me not to talk about these things until they had unfolded. Later, and a few weeks later, the San Antonio Police Department, along with the victim's family, held a news conference. The case before the evening of March 11, 2009,. That execution evening had been cold, five weeks shy of 17 years. I sat watching that news conference in North Louisiana via my computer and I cried. The family was holding a picture of their loved one. I hope it gave them some measure of help. I'm not seeking to be unkind or brutal when I say what I'm about to say, but I do cringe when I hear someone say, after a crime has been solved or a criminal has been sentenced, that the family now has closure. No, they do not. Everything isn't closed and it never will be. Closure is simply a word in our vocabularies that we like to use because we like to think that now we can get on in. That situation will never trouble us or bother us again. Closure is simply a word that is used by those who don't know any better. Here's some thoughts about faith and salvation in general. The saving grace of God is for everyone. Jesus said in the Word those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick? I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. No sin is too great and no one is too late. I have a little saying around our church as long as there is breath in the body, there is hope in the Lord. Scripture says from Isaiah 1.18,. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Romans 3.10,. There is none righteous no, not one in general think that their sins are smaller and that I guess, by definition of their sins being less serious than others, that they are perhaps milder sinners. Well, if we believe that, we deceive ourselves. All sin, put Jesus on the cross. All sin, my sin, your sin, those that society deems to be great sins, those that are deemed to be smaller sins, all sin. Put Jesus on the cross. I Put Jesus on the cross, you put Jesus on the cross. Another thought God saves murders. You read back in the scripture, in the book of Exodus, you're gonna find out that Moses was a murder. God used Moses to deliver his people. God worked miracles at the hand of Moses. God entrusted Moses with ministry, but in the early days, moses had murdered a man. King David was a murder and the plot behind the murder that he was a part of Committing the murder of Bathsheba's husband to cover sin, his sin, bathsheba's sin it was like an evil plot that sounds like a modern-day novel. They planned, they schemed, they executed. Sin upon sin, layer of sin upon layer of sin lies Deceit and much, much more. God would later say David's a man after my heart. You can't undo the fact that David was a murderer. The apostle Paul Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee of Pharisees of the tribe of Benjamin. His resume is found in the book of Philippians. He could stand his resume up against anyone and he was a murderer. He murdered in the name of God. He was so zealous of his belief system. As Christians were being killed, he looked approvingly upon it as the great spirit. Phil deacon Stephen and his story is recorded in the book of Acts was being stoned to death. Saul, who would later become the apostle Paul, looked upon that and he approved. Well, back to Louise. I Saw change in his life. He came to the Lord. There's no doubt in my mind. He came to the Lord through the influence of another inmate. The other inmates saw change in Louise. I See people in our world all the time who have gone through a religious sacrament, a ritual, a Religious exercise, and then someone declares they're a Christian. He's a Christian. Why is he a Christian? Well, he was immersed in water, he, he partook of the Lord's supper, he's been to church, all these things. They say he's a Christian. Folks, what makes a Christian is not a formula, it's not a system, it's person and his name is Jesus. You see, jesus Christ is a destiny changer and he's a life changer. There's no one like Jesus. There'll never be anyone like Jesus. He is definitely the first of ten thousands to our souls. There's no one like Jesus, they'll never be anyone like Jesus. He's more than sufficient, he's more than conqueror. He is the master, he's the lily of the valley, he is the victory assured. Jesus, precious, precious, wonderful Jesus. A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not say to the disciples, jesus told the disciples, he didn't tell the disciples, rather, to be baptized, to do certain things. He said come, follow me. A Christian is a follower of Of Jesus Christ. Are you following Jesus Christ? Louise was a follower of Jesus Christ. Frail, fragile, he fumbled, he stumbled, he got out of sorts, no doubt about it, but he followed Jesus and he kept following Jesus. You see, no matter how great your sin is, jesus is greater than all of our sins. So If all you can say, concerning the definition of a Christian, is that I did something and it has now become a get out of hell card, you, my friend, you my listener, or Wolfly mistaken, do you know? Jesus is personal Lord and Savior. Does Christ live in your life? Are you following Jesus Christ? He's the difference maker. Concerning about, about being big, big sinners. This is what Paul said in 1 Timothy 1 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. God bless you. Thank you for stopping by. I'll be back in January where we will Try to take a honest, deep dive look at mental illness. God bless you. Tell your friends if you will. Thank you for stopping by. Jesus is Lord you.