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Heliberto Chi was the 411th person executed by Texas since 1976. Chi murdered his former boss at a clothing retailer in Arlington in 2001. He was born in San Pedrosula, Honduras on December 20, 1978 and illegally immigrated to the United States when he was 16. Settling in Texas, he worked several blue collar jobs and accumulated several criminal offenses before his penultimate crime. Chi was spotted climbing the fence outside an apartment complex on September 20, 1997 when an armed security guard ordered him to stop and identify himself. He yelled an obscenity at the guard and continued on his way. The guard followed him to an apartment where Chi spit at him, ducked himself, and closed the door.
The following June, Chi was working as a courier when he stole a laptop from a Dallas bank that he was making a delivery to. He pled guilty to larceny. Later on, Chi, going by the name "Jose Garcia", was employed as a sheetrock worker when he was caught altering the payment due on his paychecks to add $700 additional money to them. His employer promptly fired him. At the time of the murder, Chi also had an outstanding warrant for a car theft in Florida. On March 2, 2001, three weeks before the murder, Chi and an accomplice robbed a convenience store, tied the clerk up, and stole $8,000.
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At some point, Chi had been employed at K&G Men's Store in Arlington. On March 24, twenty-three days after the convenience store robbery, he knocked on the door of K&G Men's Store and was allowed inside by a former co-worker when he said he'd left his wallet in there. It was evening and the store was closed; manager Armand Paliotta, age 56, and two other employees were closing up and preparing the day's receipts for deposit. Chi went around looking for his wallet, then went to the front door, took out a gun, and told the employees at the entrance to get back in.
As they were walking, Paliotta shoved Chi and ran to the front of the store. The latter chased him and then shot at him with a .38 handgun. The other employees, Adrian Riojas and Gloria Mendoza, began running. Riojas ran into the warehouse with Chi chasing him. There were several locked doors and Riojas was unable to go anywhere. As Chi drew closer, he ran in the opposite direction. Chi shot him in the back. Paliotta was also shot, fatally while Riojas survived his injury. Mendoza hid in some clothing racks and after Chi had left she got on the phone and called 911. Chi got in a getaway car and fled.
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He was apprehended on May 5 in Reseda, California when his pregnant girlfriend Erica Sierra reported him to police for domestic violence and also told them he was wanted for murder in Texas. Sierra testified that Chi had battered her on several occasions and was always careful to hit her in areas where a visible bruise could not be seen. Once he'd bought her a piano as a gift, but later smashed it up in a fit of anger. During their drive to California after the murder, Chi said he would like to hire a hitman to bump off Gloria Mendoza for being a witness. He also claimed he shot at a man once for giving him a dirty look and Sierra said he didn't seem to have any remorse for murdering Paliotta.
Chi also committed numerous offenses while in jail awaiting trial. On August 21, 2001, a jail guard caught him beating up another inmate. He ignored orders to desist and had to be restrained. On November 4, a female guard caught Chi talking to other inmates and said that was against the rules. He started to remove his jail uniform and armband, which was also not allowed. The guard demanded to see the armband, but he argued with her and yelled an obscenity. She ordered Chi to go to his cell. He refused to close the door to the cell and flipped the bird at her.
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On August 19, 2002, Chi was caught fighting with another inmate over what to watch on TV. On September 21, he gave a jail guard a sealed envelope. The guard said that was against the rules and it had to be open. Chi threatened to beat him up. Chi also confessed to a cellmate named Alonso Enriquez about shooting Paliotta and said he was not sorry about it. He added that he was probably going to be acquitted at trial, but even if he was found guilty, he'd find a way out of prison, probably by escaping. Chi also said he was going to "get" his ex-girlfriend for turning him in to police. Enriquez told jail authorities about all this because Chi had threatened him.
One of the bailiffs when Chi was making a court appearance testified that he fought him when he tried to put handcuffs on him. The bailiff said he'd interacted with thousands of inmates over the years and Chi was the first one he'd ever had to physically restrain.
Armand Paliotta was the son of an Italian immigrant family and grew up in the New York City area; he had lived in Dallas since the early 1980s. He was well-liked by his employees at K&G Men's Store and was remembered as a friend of the Latinx community, married to a Cuban wife, and was missed by many.
Chi was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced to death November 14, 2002. He was executed by lethal injection on August 7, 2008 after unsuccessfully appealing on the grounds that he did not have US citizenship. He was the second non-US citizen Texas executed that month after Jose Medellin, who participated in the gang rape and murder of two Houston teenagers in 1993.
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Pajeet are taking Texas...