Supreme Court halts Texas execution of Ruben Gutierrez for murder of 85-year-old woman

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday granted a stay of execution less than an hour before a Texas inmate was set to die by lethal injection, a "devastating" development for the family of the victim in the case and a "hopeful" one for the man who got the reprieve.

Ruben Gutierrez, 47, was scheduled to be executed just after 6 p.m. CT before the high court issued the stay pending a lower court ruling regarding the inmate's arguments over DNA testing.

While it wasn't immediately clear how long the delay in execution will be, or even if it will ever go forward, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Hannah Haney told USA TODAY shortly after the ruling: "There will not be an execution tonight."

Shawn Nolan, Gutierrez's attorney, said that news of the stay will get them one step closer to proving something they have known all along.

"Mr. Gutierrez has been requesting DNA testing for more than a decade to prove he did not kill the victim in this case," Nolan said in a statement to USA TODAY.

Nolan says they are "hopeful" that now the court has stepped in to stop the execution because they will be able to "ultimately accomplish the DNA testing to prove that Mr. Gutierrez should not be executed now or in the future.”

Here's what you need to know about the case:

Ruben Gutierrez's conviction and DNA testing argument

Gutierrez was sentenced to death in the 1998 murder of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison, a retired schoolteacher described by her nephew in an interview with USA TODAY as a pillar of the community and someone "everybody loved."

Gutierrez acknowledged planning to rob Harrison but has always maintained that he was outside her house when the two men he was with went inside. He says he never thought things would turn violent and that DNA testing could exonerate him, something he has been repeatedly denied during the appeals process.

Saenz refuted Gutierrez's claims, telling USA TODAY last week that his efforts were merely a “delay tactic.” His office wrote in court records this month that "Gutierrez purposefully forewent DNA testing at his trial in 1999."

"And he has leveraged that strategic decision for the last 20 years to delay enforcement of his sentence," they said.

Saenz was "very disappointed, very sad and very upset" for the family following Tuesday's delay, telling USA TODAY that are "re-victimized" every time Gutierrez has been able to delay the punishment that was imposed on him legally.

Gutierrez has been issued seven death warrants since 2018, spending more than 575 days on death watch, his attorneys have said. Each time, his execution has been called off, largely over clerical issues.

"Here we go again," Saenz said Tuesday. "We did this four years ago and I found that to be very disheartening to the family. And here we are four years later. Déjà vu. It's sickening to the family. They get re-victimized over and over again. When is it going to stop?"

Saenz says he "will continue to fight" until Gutierrez is held accountable.

"All that does is reinvigorate me," he said. "All that does is motivate me to double down and to do what I have to do to so that someday, in the near future, the Harrison family will see justice for Escolastica, which is what they've been waiting for and wanting now for 25 years."

Ruben Gutierrez's execution stay is 'devastating,' nephew says

Harrison's nephew, Alex Hernandez, was waiting for the execution to begin when he received a phone call from Saenz about 20 minutes before the lethal injection. Saenz informed him of the last-minute stay.

"It was just devastating," Hernandez told USA TDOAY. "It's like 'Come on, you know. This is the third time we've jumped through all their hoops and done everything that they've asked. And now you're telling us that it's not going to happen. I mean it's just numbing, devastating, unbelievable."

He continued: "I feel just defeated. I know it's not over yet, but at this moment I feel defeated."

Hernandez thought he was going to be able to lay the situation to rest, but instead has continue to live with the memory of what happened to Harrison, who was his beloved "Aunt Peco."

"If it had gone through, I would've gone home, prayed over it, thought about it for a while put it to rest, think about my Aunt Peco and be happy now that all this is done and move on with my life," he said. "But now I have to think about her killer again every day."

Hernandez will continue to question why his family has yet to receive justice and wonder if they ever will.

"When's it going to happen? Why hasn't it happened yet? Is going to happen ever?" he said. "He was convicted. How are you telling me 'Look at the case again.' For what? It doesn't make sense."

Hernandez thinks Gutierrez's pleas for DNA testing are bogus, saying he believes Gutierrez is just trying to "buy time."

"He's scared to die. He left crying. He left the room crying in tears, saying 'Thank God,'" he said. "How do you think my aunt felt being stabbed 13-14 times with screwdrivers by people she was acquainted with? How do you think she felt?"

Escolastica Harrison enjoying retirement when attacked at home

Harrison was enjoying retirement after decades of juggling her job as a schoolteacher and managing a trailer park that served as a "stepping stone" for struggling residents, her nephew, Alex Hernandez, told USA TODAY.

At the time of her death, another of Harrison's nephews − Avel Cuellar − had been living with her to help her around the trailer park after her husband died. Gutierrez, a friend of Cuellar's, hung around Harrison's trailer park often, drinking and socializing.

Gutierrez, who was a 21-year-old married father of two at the time, befriended Harrison and would run errands for her, eventually learning that she kept a lot of cash in her home, according to court records.

Gutierrez and two other men − Rene and Pedro Garcia − went to Harrison's home to rob her on Sept. 5, 1998.

The accounts of what happened in her home that night vary, with Gutierrez alleging that he waited outside and had no idea things would get violent. Regardless, Harrison ended up “face down in a pool of blood” after having been beaten and stabbed approximately 13 times, court records say. Though Gutierrez thought Harrison had $600,000 in the home, it's unclear how much money the men made away with; prosecutors say it was at least $56,000.

Hernandez said it was his mother's dying wish that he make sure Gutierrez is executed. He was set to be among the witnesses at Tuesday's execution before it was delayed.