'Texas vampire' set to be executed for murder of 12-year-old boy

His lawyers have filed an appeal to the US Supreme court

Pablo Vasquez was convicted of the 1998 killing of a schoolboy

The state of Texas is preparing to execute a man who killed a 12-year-old boy and then claimed that he drank his blood.

Pablo Vasquez, 38, is due to die by lethal injection on Wednesday night for the 1998 killing of the young boy, who was beaten and whose throat was cut.

The Associated Press said that Vasquez told detectives in a videotaped statement that he lifted the boy's body, allowing the blood to drip on his face, and drank it.


 (Rex)
 (Rex)

“The blood was dripping and I got it all over my face. So, I don’t know, I mean something just told me drink,” Vasquez said.

The death row inmate told police he was drunk and high when voices convinced him 18 years ago to kill David Cardenas by beating the schoolboy with a pipe.

Vasquez's lawyer, James Keegan, has appealed to the Supreme Court for a reprieve so the justices can review whether several potential jurors were improperly excused from his client’s trial because they either were opposed to the death penalty or not comfortable making such a judgment.

State lawyers opposed any delay, arguing the potential jurors’ exclusion was legally proper and that the latest appeal was similar to an unsuccessful one 12 years ago.

The AP said court records showed that Vasquez, his 15-year-old cousin, Andres Rafael Chapa, and Cardenas, Chapa's friend, all attended a party in Donna, a Texas border town where Vasquez and Chapa lived. Cardenas was from nearby Alamo, also in the Rio Grande Valley, and was spending the weekend with Chapa.

The killing occurred April 18, 1998, after the three left the party. Vasquez told authorities as they reached a wooden shed, he started hearing voices telling him to kill Cardenas.

“Something just told me to drink,” Vasquez said in the statement to police.

“You drink what?” a detective asked. “His blood,” Vasquez replied.