Juan Carlos Chavez Executed for Brutal Murder: 'My Deliverance Will Come, if Not in This Life, Than the Next,' Killer Wrote
Juan Carlos Chavez, the man found guilty of kidnapping, raping, killing and dismembering 9-year-old Jimmy Ryce in 1995 was put to death in Florida on Wednesday night. Ryce's parents are satisfied to see justice for their son and said that Chavez could have made different choices that would not have led to his death.
"19 years ago, Juan Carlos Chavez was faced with a choice," Jimmy's father, Don, told reporters after the execution. "He had kidnapped my son. He had sexually assaulted him, and now it was time to decide would he let him live or would he take his life? We know what he decided to do and the choice he made, and as a result of that choice he died today."
Chavez reportedly kidnapped Jimmy at gunpoint just one block from his home. He then took him back to his trailer, raped him and held him captive before shooting Jimmy in the back as he tried to escape. Chavez then dismembered the boy's body and filled three planters with the body parts and concrete. His remains were found three months later after Chavez confessed to the murder.
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Chavez received his last meal before being led to the execution chamber. He offered no last words but instead left behind a letter with religious thoughts and themes.
"No word or man will rob me of my peace today," Chavez wrote, "for I know in my heart that through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death, that no one who trust(s) in God's promises is ever abandoned. My deliverance I know will come, if not in this life, then in death and the life to come. Today my Redeemer bring(s) peace to my heart, so I cannot wish any less for everybody else. Therefore I beg my Lord the Christ in these my last minutes on this world that his unfailing love be upon us, upon those who today take the life out of this body, as well as those who in their blindness, or in their pain, desire my death. God bless us all."
Little Jimmy's father was not eager to forgive the man who killed his son.
"People will not forget. They will not forgive," Don told the Miami Herald. "We will hunt you down and put you to death," he warned pedophiles everywhere.
"If there was ever anyone in the world who deserved to die, it's the man who did that," Don said last month.
