Ivan Cantu executed Wednesday despite last-ditch efforts to prove his innocence

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A Texas inmate who had long claimed his conviction more than 20 years ago was based on false testimony and questionable evidence was executed Wednesday evening for fatally shooting two people, including his cousin.

Ivan Cantu received a lethal injection and was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the November 2000 fatal shooting of his cousin, James Mosqueda, 27, and his cousin's girlfriend, Amy Kitchen, 22. In final words from the execution chamber, he said several times that he was innocent of the killings. 

Prosecutors said Cantu killed Mosqueda, who dealt illegal drugs, and Kitchen as he tried to steal cocaine, marijuana and cash from his cousin's North Dallas home. The 50-year-old inmate, who was convicted in 2001, had long claimed a rival drug dealer killed his cousin in a dispute over money.

READ MORE: Texas inmate's execution on hold, lawyers say evidCence from true crime podcast proves he was 'framed'

Cantu's was the first execution in Texas this year. 

The Texas execution proceeded hours after Cantu's attorney, Gena Bunn, said she would not be submitting a final appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court as she "couldn't find a viable path" in which the case could be reviewed by the high court.

Two lower courts on Tuesday had denied Cantu's request to stay his execution. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed his petition on procedural grounds and without reviewing its merits. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Cantu's new evidence was "not credible" and "none of it undermines the critical incriminating evidence against Cantu."

On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 7-0 against commuting Cantu's death sentence to a lesser penalty. Members also rejected granting a four-month reprieve. 

Efforts to delay Cantu's execution had received the support of faith leaders, celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and actor Martin Sheen, and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, and his brother, former U.S. Housing Secretary Julian Castro. And three jurors from Cantu's trial had also requested an execution delay, saying they now have doubts about the case.

Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis, whose office convicted Cantu, said that evidence presented at trial proved Cantu committed the killings. "I remain fully convinced that Ivan Cantu brutally murdered two innocent victims in 2000," Willis said in a recent statement.

But Bunn had written in Cantu's clemency application that new evidence "impugns the integrity of the State's case for guilt and raises the specter that the State of Texas could execute an innocent man."

In Cantu's apartment, police found bloody jeans with the victims' DNA and a key to the victims' home. Police found Cantu's gun at his ex-girlfriend's home. Mosqueda's blood was found on the gun's barrel while Cantu's fingerprints were found on the gun's magazine.

In a 2005 affidavit, Matthew Goeller, one of Cantu's trial attorneys, said Cantu admitted to him "he had indeed killed Mosqueda for ‘ripping him off' on a drug deal" and that Kitchen was killed because she was a witness. 

Cantu's then-girlfriend, Amy Boettcher, was the prosecution's main witness. Boettcher, who died in 2021, testified that Cantu told her he was going to kill Mosqueda and Kitchen and later took her back to the crime scene after the killings.

But Bunn alleged that Boettcher's testimony was riddled with false statements, including about Cantu stealing Mosqueda's Rolex watch and Cantu giving her an engagement ring he stole from Kitchen. 

Bunn said new witness statements also helped confirm Cantu's claim that a man who had supplied drugs to Mosqueda had threatened the cousin two days before the killings. 

Bunn credited an independent probe by Matt Duff, a private investigator, with uncovering much of the new evidence. Duff has chronicled his findings in a podcast called "Cousins By Blood."

Willis' office has said in court documents "Amy Boettcher testified truthfully." 

Of the new evidence presented by Cantu, Willis' office had said "none of it destroys the cornerstones of the State's case."

Read Cantu's full final statement below:

"I’d like to address the Kitchens and Mosqueda families. I want you to know that I never killed James and Amy. And if I did, if I knew who did, you would’ve been the first to know any information I would’ve had that would’ve helped to bring justice to James and Amy I would’ve shared.

I want you all to know that I don’t think that this situation here will bring you closure if it does. If this is what it takes or have any reservations off in your mind, then so be it. This is not going to help you guys and I want you to know from me that it never occurred. No. I want all of you to know I did not kill James and Amy. Okay. 

Now that I have addressed them, I would like to address and thank my attorney Gene Bund, I’d like to thank my mom, Sylvia Cantu, Matt Duff, Michael Frazier, and of course sister Helen, everyone that came to my rescue to help me. Including my family and my friends and my supporters. Everyone that blessed me to be in this position and it was an honor to work with all of them.

But I would especially like to thank Matt Duff for believing in me and digging deep and unraveling the case that he did to prove to the world that I do not belong on this gurney, to keep up the fight and to keep searching and doing what needs to be done to find all the answers and bring closure to the truth to the Kitchens and Mosqueda Family.

Last, I’d like to close by telling Michael that I love her, and I will always be with her. Matthew 6:21 Igfyus love forever. 

That’s it. That’s all I got to say. Warden, I’m ready. "