Castle Rock – The behavior of Jose Luis Rubi-Nava – an alleged murder, a history of brutality toward his victim and a remorseless confession – could make him a candidate for the death penalty.
But a low IQ could save his life.
Rubi-Nava, 36, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday before Douglas County District Judge Paul King on charges he murdered his girlfriend, Maria Franco-Fierros, 49, in September in north Douglas County.
He told investigators he tied a 10-foot strap to his bumper, looped the other end around her neck, and said, “If you want death, here it is.”
Then he sped away, according to investigators, leaving a 1.3-mile trail of blood and a mutilated victim in the roadway.
Public defender Tamara Brady said her client is mentally retarded, which, if proved, would exempt him from the death penalty.
A 1993 Colorado law forbids executing the mentally retarded. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that executing them was “cruel and unusual punishment,” making it unconstitutional.
Daniel Recht, a former public defender and past president of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, said that “in general,” a person with an IQ below 70 is considered by the courts to be mentally retarded.
The claim would not shield Rubi-Nava from responsibility for his crime, Recht said.
“The defense, it seems to me, is trying to save his life and trying to get him life in prison as opposed to the death penalty,” Recht said.
Brady and prosecutors have refused to discuss the case with the media. The defense turned over still-undisclosed information about Rubi-Nava’s mental retardation to the prosecution in May.
Rubi-Nava immigrated to the United States from Mexico, where he has a wife and children, and held a series of fast- food and landscaping jobs.
Such abilities do not diminish his defense’s claim of retardation, said Denver lawyer David Lane, who has defended dozens of death-penalty cases.
“A 9-year-old could do a lot of those things also,” he said. “Does that mean a 9-year-old should be strapped to a table by the state and killed? No.”
Rubi-Nava’s defense would have to demonstrate that he had exhibited signs of retardation before he turned 18, Lane said.
“It’s not a tactic to avoid the death penalty,” he said. “It’s the law. He either is retarded or he isn’t. There’s no ‘if’ or ‘maybe.”‘
Under most conditions, District Attorney Carol Chambers would have 30 days after the arraignment to decide whether to seek the death penalty.
In May, Chambers waived the death penalty for Parish Carter in the killing of Javad Marshall- Fields and Vivian Wolfe in Aurora in 2005 .
Carter, who has an IQ of 64, has been classified as mentally retarded since high school.
The death penalty is still a rarity in Colorado, with only one person currently on the state’s death row.
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.
