District Attorney Carol Chambers said Tuesday she will seek the death penalty for Jose Luis Rubi-Nava, if the law allows it.
Rubi-Nava confessed to dragging his girlfriend, Maria Franco-Fierros, to death behind his car in north Douglas County in September 2006.
“A decision to seek the death penalty is among the most significant responsibilities any public official can face,” Chambers said in a statement.
The point could be moot.
Rubi-Nava’s public defender, Tamara Brady, claims her client is mentally retarded. The state and U.S. supreme courts have ruled that anyone who is mentally retarded cannot be executed. To qualify, a defendant must have an IQ below 70 and have a diagnosis or demonstrated history of retardation before age 18.
A hearing on results of testing by the state mental hospital is set for an Oct. 26.
Despite Rubi-Nava’s confession, Brady entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf in August.
Rubi-Nava gave police this account:
He had beaten Franco-Fierros on 10 occasions, including the night she died.
He waited four hours on the night he killed Franco-Fierros. She was late returning to their Glendale apartment from her job at a fast-food restaurant. He was convinced she had a boyfriend.
Rubi-Nava said he placed a noose around her neck, and tied the opposite end around his car bumper. “If you want death, here it is,” he told her, before dragging her body 1.3 miles down Surrey Ridge Drive.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
