Feb. 2, 2023 Wesley Ruiz was executed Wednesday night in the Huntsville unit of the Texas Department of Corrections in the March 2007 killing of Dallas Police Senior Cpl. Mark Nix.
By Brenda Poe Source The Huntsville Item, Texas (TNS) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Wesley Ruiz, 43, spent his last day packing his cell, awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court decision on his appeal, but reprieve never came.
He was executed Wednesday night in the Huntsville unit of the Texas Department of Corrections.
Prison logs show that he received his first visitor around 8:15 a.m. Wednesday. He visited until the log ends at 11:15 a.m.
Ruiz was sentenced to death for the March 2007 killing of Dallas Police Senior Cpl. Mark Nix.
In court documents filed late Tuesday with the U.S. Supreme Court, the Texas Attorney General’s Office said Ruiz’s claim of juror bias had no merit following a review conducted last week by Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot.
One of the jurors accused of bias by Ruiz’s attorneys told Creuzot: “I was not nor am now bias(ed) to anyone or any race,” according to the court filing.
Nix was a 33-year-old U.S. Navy veteran of Operation Desert Storm. He has been with the department for seven years.
Ruiz, a high-school dropout, was reportedly a member of a gang, who drove trucks for a living. He testified in court that he thought Nix was firing shots at him, but body camera footage shows Nix attempting to gain access to the car Ruiz was driving following a pursuit. Ruiz took a curve too fast, hit a curb and spun out of control.
Nix approached the vehicle and began trying to break the passenger side window with his baton. After punching a small hole in the window, a shot came from inside the car.
Dallas Police had issued a bulletin on the 1996 Chevy Caprice that Ruiz was driving in reference to a homicide committed two days earlier.
Ruiz shot Nix with an AR-15 and continued to fire at officers during the confrontation.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday unanimously declined to commute Ruiz’s death sentence to a lesser penalty.
Ruiz was moved to a holding cell at 6:03 p.m. He was strapped to the gurney at 6:04 p.m. Needles for the lethal injection went to his left arm at 6:07 p.m. and right arm at 6:08 p.m. His spiritual adviser was allowed to pray aloud, asking for forgiveness. Ruiz gave his last statement at 6:18 p.m.
“I would like to apologize to Mark and the Nix family. I hope this brings you closure. I want to say to all my family and friends around the world, thank you for supporting me,” Ruiz said. “To my kids, stand tall and continue to make me proud. Don’t worry about me. I’m ready to fly. All right warden, I’m ready to ride.”
The lethal dose began to flow into his veins at 6:19 p.m. At 6:41 p.m., the medical examiner pronounced him dead.
Nix’s mother, who didn’t remove her gaze from Ruiz until the pronouncement of his death, quickly broke down in tears, hugged by Nix’s former coworker Charles Cato.
Witnessing the execution on the victim’s side were his sister and two nieces.
Ruiz’s witnesses included his father, two brothers, two friends and a spiritual advisor.
The next execution scheduled at the Huntsville Unit will be that of John Balentine of Potter County on Wednesday, Feb. 8.