Texas plans to execute a man who killed, robbed victim of $8

[October 06, 2015]  AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas plans on Tuesday to execute a man who was convicted of fatally shooting a recently arrived Mexican immigrant in the head and robbing him of $8.

Juan Garcia is set to be put to death by lethal injection at 6 p.m. local time at the state's death chamber in Huntsville. If the execution goes ahead, it will be the 529th in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976 - the most of any state.

Garcia, then 18, was found guilty of killing Hugo Solano, 32, in a 1998 robbery in Houston. He and three accomplices had launched a crime spree in the Houston area, which included the robbery, the Texas Attorney General's Office said.

"When Solano refused to hand over any money, Garcia shot him four times in the head and neck, killing him," it said.

This month, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended that the execution should go forward.

None of Garcia's three co-defendants were sentenced to death.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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