Jury Finds Railcar Killer Guilty

Renendiz Wants Death Over Prison

HOUSTON, Updated 7:24 p.m. EDT May 18, 2000 -- Angel Maturino Resendiz, the confessed rail-riding serial killer who was found guilty Thursday, told the courtroom that he would prefer death rather than life in prison.

Resendiz, who was on the FBI's most wanted list, was found guilty of capital murder Thursday in the rape-slaying of a Houston-area physician.

Jurors deliberated for 10 hours over two days before concluding that Resendiz was aware that he was committing a crime when he broke into the home of Dr. Claudia Benton in 1998, then sexually assaulted, bludgeoned and stabbed her to death.

In light of overwhelming physical evidence in the Benton case, defense attorneys admitted that their client had killed the 39-year-old woman as well as eight others in three states while traversing the country as a freight-train stowaway. The sole point that the jury had to determine was if Resendiz knew he was breaking the law when he entered Benton's home and killed her.

Resendiz's mother dabbed her eyes with a tissue as she sat during the reading of the verdict with his sister, Maritza. His mother later told members of the media that if the verdict was God's will, then she could accept it.

Benton's husband, George Benton, silently nodded and looked straight at Resendiz. Relatives of other victims embraced and patted each other on the back. One person turned around and gave the OK symbol.

The punishment phase began shortly after the verdict. The 40-year-old migrant worker from Mexico faces life in prison or death by lethal injection.

Resendiz's attorneys had said that the two-year killing spree began in August 1997 with the slaying of Christopher Maier, a college student in Lexington, Ky. Two other people were killed in Illinois and five others in Texas. All the deaths took place near train tracks, earning the suspect the nickname "Railroad Killer."

After an extensive manhunt that crossed international borders, Resendiz surrendered July 13, 1999, 23 days after he was added to the FBI's 10 most wanted list. He was arrested on a bridge spanning the Texas-Mexico border near El Paso by a Texas Ranger who had brokered a deal with Resendiz's sister.

The weeklong Benton trial hinged on Resendiz's mental condition. Five days were devoted to testimony from psychoanalysts who had interviewed the defendant.

The two defense experts said he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia that twisted his view of the world, but prosecution witnesses said he was sane, aside from a personality disorder.

Dr. Bruce Cohen, a forensic psychiatrist testifying for the defense, maintained that while Resendiz knew that what he did was illegal, he believed he was doing good by eliminating evil on God's behalf.

"He felt an evil force pulling him into these homes and directing him to people who were evil and deserved to be dead, and as an angel of God he was doing God's will,'' said Larry Pollock, a psychologist who also testified for the defense.

Resendiz, who said he was a Christian Jew, also said he was a half-man, half-angel who possessed supernatural powers, such as the ability to predict disasters, leave his own body and cause weather catastrophes. He had wanted the trial moved to Waco because he felt kinship with the Branch Davidians.

But experts for the prosecution said that was not enough to show the acute mental illness that the defense tried to prove.

"However idiosyncratic, strange or weird, these are not delusions," said psychologist Ramon Laval.

Authorities have not determined why Resendiz selected Benton, a researcher at Baylor College of Medicine. She was home alone because her husband and twin daughters were visiting family in Arizona.

Prosecutors said fingerprints on a jewelry box, a button and pieces of broken plastic from the steering column of the physician's sport utility vehicle placed Resendiz at the crime scene, and DNA and blood evidence tied him to the slaying.

The county medical examiner testified that stab wounds found on Benton's body were so forceful, they broke several of Benton's ribs and collapsed her lungs. A statuette likely was used to hit Benton in the head 19 times, repeatedly fracturing her skull.

It also emerged during the trial that drug abuse -- namely, glue sniffing -- and several childhood head injuries could have played a role in the development of Resendiz's mental illness.

His mother testified that her son was dropped on his head by a midwife just after he was born.

She also recalled how her son was hit in the head with a rock by other students when he was in his early teens and witnessed her being attacked by men with knives on two occasions. Cohen, the psychiatrist, said Resendiz was twice raped by a neighbor when he was 8.

Experts said that Resendiz has an IQ of 120, which is above average. He has been a prolific letter-writer from jail, telling attorneys of micro-organisms, of his treatment in jail and of being an "angel of God.''

Copyright 2001 by Click2Houston.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.