Ivan Cantu, a Texas citizen was executed on Wednesday, February 28, by a lethal injection. He was accused of shooting two people including his cousin. Cantu maintained his innocence since he was convicted.
Cantu alleged that the entire incident was based on questionable evidence and false testimony. However, it’s been over 20 years, since he was convicted. He was convicted of shooting James Mosqueda, 27, his cousin, and Amy Kitchen, 22, Mosqueda’s girlfriend. This incident took place in November 2000.
On February 27, Tuesday the request to stay Ivan’s execution was denied, lessening the death sentence along with a four-month reprieve was also rejected. Ivan Cantu received support from celebrities and faith leaders including former U.S. Housing Secretary Julian Castro, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, actor Martin Sheen, and Kim Kardashian.
However, Ivan Cantu kept on repeating that, he was innocent. But, he was accused of killing the couple while stealing cash, marijuana, and cocaine from his cousin’s home in North Dallas.
The Murder Testimony
Reports stated that bloody jeans were discovered by Cops where the victims’ DNA was found. The gun with which the pair was shot dead, had Mosqueda’s blood on it. Moreover, Cantu’s fingerprints were also found reportedly on the gun.
Cantu’s girlfriend, Amy Boettcher revealed that her Boyfriend, Ivan Cantu planned to murder Mosqueda and his girlfriend. Amy Boettcher also revealed that Ivan took her back to the murder scene.
Ivan Cantu Update
Kim Kardashian advocated to Greg Abbott, Texas Governor to save Ivan Cantu. SKIMS owner shared a petition plea stating, “Ivan has 5 days to live. Please sign the petition to demand that Collin County DA Greg Willis request to withdraw the execution date.” It is to be noted that, before this incident, Kim Kardashian advocated for several others as well.
Kim Kardashian appealed again to Governor Abbott stating, “Texas Gov Greg Abbott is last resort for a 30-day reprieve for Ivan Cantu, set to die on Wednesday, Feb 28. Urge him to use his power to allow time for new evidence in Ivan’s case to be evaluated, lest Texas execute a wrongfully convicted man.”
However, recently, the fashion model and SKIMS owner took to X (formerly Twitter) and shared a black-and-white photo of Ivan A. Cantu. The picture was of a project manager from New York, who was not Ivan Cantu, the murderer in discussion.
The conundrum escalated as both the New York project manager and Texas death row inmate’s first and last names were the same. Thus, when the NY project manager got to know about the incident, he went to Facebook and dropped a clarification.
In his Facebook Post, he wrote, “To all my friends and family, I am not getting executed, some idiot who runs @kimkardashian [socials] used my picture instead of Ivan ‘Abner’ Cantu.”
The NY manager revealed that his family told him about the wrong post by Kim Kardashian. Thus, the SKIM owner deleted her story on Instagram and issued an apology quickly in public by stating, “A wrong image of Mr. Cantu was posted earlier today and I would like to apologize to the person whose image was used in error.”