Juan Rodriguez Chavez

Over the next years, Chavez repeatedly attempted to appeal his death sentence, but the relevant courts rejected each of his appeals. After his appeals were exhausted, his execution date was scheduled for April 22, 2003. On the aforementioned date, he was executed via lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit. While preparations were being set up for the procedure, Chavez smiled and grinned to his family members, who had come to witness his execution. Before his execution, Chavez made a final statement seemingly expressing remorse for his actions: "To the media, I would like for you to tell all the victims and their loved ones that I am truly, truly sorry for taking their loved ones' lives. And I hope they will find it in their heart to forgive me for what I did to them. I am a different person now, but that does not change the fact of the bad things I have committed. God can give you the same peace He gave me, and you can be in His hands. And to my beautiful family, be strong. Remember what I said, "God is the Way, the Truth, and the Life." OK, Warden." His final audible words were to ask whether the drugs were taking effect, and he reportedly spent the last minutes of his life praying.

On March 22, 1995, Chavez, Fernandez, and Chavez's girlfriend, Rachel Blanco, went around cruising for new rims in Rachel's father's Lincoln Continental. While driving around East Davis, Chavez noticed a car in a car wash which had rims he really liked, whereupon he pulled over. He then got out of the car and threatened Jose Castillo, the car's owner, for his keys. Before Castillo could respond, Chavez shot him and took the keys, but did not take the car. Two months later, on May 20, Chavez and Fernandez carjacked and shot Juan Pablo Hernandez at a parking lot in West Davis, stealing his Buick Regal after the fact. The car was then taken to a chop shop and disassembled – Fernandez kept the vehicle's stereo system, but Chavez decided not to take anything from it.

In spite of his actions, Chavez was paroled in April 1994, whereupon he moved in to live with his sister Isabel in Dallas. According to her and his parole officer, he appeared to have changed for the better, although he struggled to find a job due to his convictions. Around this time, he became acquainted with 15-year-old Hector "Crazy" Fernandez, a mentally-ill teenager who became fascinated with his older friend due to his knowledge of firearms and his willingness to defend him from a teenage street gang that had harassed him. Fernandez would later testify that they spent a majority of their time messing around and shooting a variety of firearms.

On December 28, 1985, the 17-year-old Chavez and two accomplices broke into the home of Raul and Vincente Mendoza with the intent of robbing them. During the robbery, the trio opened fire on the pair, partially blinding Raul and killing Vincente in the process. All three of them were arrested, tried, and convicted for murder and aggravated robbery, with Chavez receiving a 15-year sentence for his participation. Only a few years into his incarceration, he joined the Texas Syndicate, a violent prison gang, and until the end of his sentence, he committed upwards of 40 violations – this ranged from refusing to work assigned jobs to nearly murdering fellow inmates.

Juan Rodriguez Chavez (April 27, 1968 – April 22, 2003), known as The Thrill Killer, was an American serial killer and spree killer who, together with a teenage accomplice, killed eleven people in Dallas, Texas during a crime spree lasting from March to July 1995, shortly after being paroled from prison for a murder conviction. For the latter crimes, Chavez was sentenced to death and subsequently executed in 2003.

Juan Rodriguez Chavez was born on April 27, 1968, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, as the middle child of nineteen children born to a couple of itinerant farm workers. About three months after his birth, the entire Chavez family moved to West Dallas, a neighborhood populated predominantly by other Mexican Americans. All members of the family, including Juan, were described as normal, decent people, although the latter dropped out of school after the ninth grade.