HAWKS WIN IN SAN DIEGO
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 17, 2014
FREE
ZAPATA CROSS COUNTRY, FOOTBALL AND VOLLEYBALL TEAMS WIN, 7A
DELIVERED EVERY SATURDAY
TO 4,000 HOMES
A HEARST PUBLICATION
ON THE WEB: THEZAPATATIMES.COM
NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO
Explosion reported Blast claims 2 lives; cause may be gas leak
By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
A child and a woman died following an explosion reported in Colonia Infonavit Fundadores in Southeast Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, authorities said. Initial reports show that a gas leak might have
caused the blast. Tamaulipas state officials identified the deceased as Socorro Cárdenas Tapia and 5-yearold Alfonso de Jesús Nájera. Ulises Ochoa, director of Nuevo Laredo’s Civil Protection and Fire Department, said first responders received reports of an ex-
plosion at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday at Privada Emilio Barrera No. 26. Cárdenas Tapia lived in the home where the blast originated. Authorities manned the intersection of Privada Emilio Barrera and Avenida Luis Echeverria, blocking off access to the affected area. People could be heard cry-
ing. First responders arrived at the scene to find three homes collapsed. Rescue workers searched within the debris for survivors. Several homes in the surrounding areas had their windows shattered, Ochoa
See EXPLOSION PAGE 12A
Courtesy photo
Nuevo Laredo citizens walk to the site of an explosion. Initial reports show that a gas leak might have caused the blast.
MEXICAN INDEPENDENCE DAY
LCC
DIECISÉIS DE SEPTIEMBRE CELEBRATION Photo by Cuate Santos | The Zapata Times
Phoenix high school teacher Fred Lajvardi, right, and his former student Lorenzo Santillan kicked off the 2014-2015 Distinguished Speaker Series at Laredo Community College Tuesday morning with a pair of presentations at the Guadalupe and Lilia Martinez Fine Arts center.
Photo by Eric Gay | AP
Austin High School Ballet Folklorico dancers perform at the Texas state capitol Tuesday in Austin, Texas. The dancers took part in a Dieciséis de Septiembre celebrations, marking Mexican Independence Day.
HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — When paramedics responding to a 911 call arrived at a North Texas apartment, they found on the bathroom floor a dead boy clad only in bandages and a disposable diaper. He appeared to be 3 to 5 years old. Further investigation determined Davontae Williams actually was 9. His emaciated body weighed only 36 pounds, about half of what a boy his age should weigh. Evidence showed he had been restrained repeatedly at his wrists and ankles. A pediatrician later would testify that he had more than 250 distinct injuries, including burns from cigarettes or cigars and scars from ligatures, and that a lack of food made him stop growing. Today, Lisa Ann Coleman, the live-in girlfriend of Davontae’s
mother, is set to be executed for the child’s July 2004 death in Arlington. Coleman’s trial lawyers said his death was an COLEMAN accident, that the boy had mental health issues, was difficult to handle and she and Marcella Williams, his mother, didn’t know how to deal with him in a positive manner. Coleman, 38, would be the ninth Texas inmate to receive a lethal injection this year. She would be the sixth woman put to death in the nation’s busiest capital punishment state since executions resumed in Texas in 1982 and the second this year. Nationally, she would be only the 15th woman executed since the Supreme Court in 1976 allowed the death penalty to resume. During that same time, nearly 1,400 men have been executed.
After a Tarrant County jury in 2006 convicted Coleman and gave her a death sentence, Marcella Williams, facing similar charges, took a plea deal and accepted a life prison term. Now 33, she not eligible for parole until 2044. Attorneys for Coleman argued in appeals that prosecutors improperly defined Davontae’s restraints and confinement in a closet as kidnapping to find an aggravating factor so Coleman could be eligible for the death penalty. They also argued that jurors who convicted her of capital murder did so because her trial lawyers were deficient. “It has never been Lisa Coleman’s position that she should not be punished for what she did,” attorney John Stickels said in an appeal the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which was rejected Tuesday. “The position of Lisa Coleman is that she is not guilty of a capital crime.”
Man led students to national championship By JUDITH RAYO
Woman to die for child’s death By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Cali teacher visits Laredo
He said he would take the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Dixie Bersano, an assistant Tarrant County district attorney who prosecuted Coleman, said the punishment was appropriate. “Davontae died of malnutrition, a slow and cruel process,” she said. “There was not an inch of his body that had not been bruised or scarred or injured.” Photos of Davontae shown to jurors were “horrendous” and illustrated his suffering, trial defense attorney Fred Cummings acknowledged, but he believed a life sentence also would have been appropriate for Coleman. “It just doesn’t seem that the system was fairly applied here,” Cummings said last week. Evidence showed child welfare officials repeatedly investigated Marcella Williams but would lose track of her because she kept moving to evade them, fearing they would take away her son and two younger daughters.
THE ZAPATA TIMES
The story of a man who helped his high school students become national champions in a robotics competition made its way to Laredo Community College students. Fred Lajvardi, a California high school teacher along with his former student Lorenzo Santillan, presented to LCC students Tuesday the story of their journey and the challenges they faced along the way. Their story goes back to 2004 when Lajvardi and the high school robotics team entered in the Marine Advanced Technology Education National Remotely Operated Vehicle Championships in California. Lajvardi said the team entered the competition not expecting much success. “We were trying to set up our failure ahead of time,” Lajvardi said, adding that the team decided to pursue competing against universities rather than against a high school. “We decided to do what we knew what would happen,” Lajvardi said. “Enter the university competition and get last. “We wanted to do this as a learning experience.”
See VISIT PAGE 12A