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The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-1 Tuesday against recommending clemency for death row inmate Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez. 

Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, was sentenced to die in 2007 by lethal injection for fatally shooting his girlfriend, Olimpia Fisher, in 2003. Cuesta-Rodriguez had a history of domestic violence against Fisher, according to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office. On the night of the shooting, he accused Fisher of cheating on him because she was withdrawing from the relationship. 

Although he said he neither deserved nor wanted clemency, Cuesta-Rodriguez told the board he wanted the opportunity to apologize to Fisher’s daughters face-to-face. 

“It’s time for me to pay for what I did,” he said. 

Less than two weeks before the murder, Fisher reported that he beat her and strangled her with a belt, but left the Oklahoma City Police Department before officers photographed her injuries, saying she did not want him arrested. Her 18-year-old daughter, Katya Wallis, told police after the crime she avoided Cuesta-Rodriguez because he was controlling, was frequently drunk and repeatedly called her names 

Hours before the murder, Wallis found a note Cuesta-Rodriguez wrote, filled with insults against Wallis and Fisher. Wallis called Fisher for help and picked her up from work.

Prosecutors said Fisher planned to leave Cuesta-Rodriguez. After she and Wallis packed their belongings, Fisher saw him asleep inside the house and decided to wait for him to leave instead. She spent the night in another room. 

According to prosecutors, Cuesta-Rodriguez woke up, accused Fisher of cheating on him and confronted her with a gun. Wallis witnessed Cuesta-Rodriguez shoot Fisher in the face and tried to intervene with a baseball bat, but Cuesta-Rodriguez took it from her, prosecutors said. 

Cuesta-Rodriguez then pointed the gun at Wallis, who was five months pregnant. She escaped to a neighbor’s house and called the police. 

A case information packet from the Attorney General’s Office states that metal burglary bars prevented police from entering the house. While officers remained outside, Cuesta-Rodriguez shot Fisher a second time in the face, prosecutors said.

Fisher survived the first gunshot, which struck her in the right eye. The second shot entered through her left eye, filled her airways with blood and fractured her skull. Prosecutors said Fisher could have survived, but Cuesta-Rodriguez refused to surrender or render aid. Police later arrested him, and medical personnel pronounced Fisher dead.

Cinthya Chacon, one of Fisher’s daughters, described her mother as hardworking and generous. She said her mother was special and would help anyone in need. Wallis told board members she couldn’t help her mother because she was on the other side of the room. She said Cuesta-Rodriguez never apologized to her, and she believes Cuesta-Rodriguez presents a facade depending on his current situation.

Wallis also told board members she has post-traumatic stress disorder that’s so severe she can’t open a can of biscuits on Sunday morning for her kids because of what she witnessed. 

“Carlos was not mentally ill. He was not sick when this tragic event happened,” Wallis said, noting evidence presented in court showed he was an obsessive, selfish, calculated person. “He was not drunk.” 

Fisher’s daughters urged the board to allow the execution to proceed by denying clemency. 

The Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office told the board that killing Fisher was not Cuesta-Rodriguez’s first criminal offense. According to a case information packet from the Attorney General’s Office, after Cuesta-Rodriguez fled Cuba in 1980, California law enforcement arrested him for possessing drugs and false identification documents. He also had a history of stalking, harassing, and abusing women. His third ex-wife sought a protection order against him for stalking and harassment. 

Prosecutors with the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office described Cuesta-Rodriguez as abusive, controlling, and a cold-blooded killer. Assistant Attorney General Chris Howard told the board he watched as Fisher called for help as police sat outside, just feet away, unable to get inside. 

“She refused to let Cuesta push her out of her home, so he forced her to leave in a body bag,” Howard said. “He couldn’t control her life, so he chose to end it in an excruciating way. The jury heard those facts, and they decided what justice required.”

But his lawyers argued that childhood trauma, brain injuries and mental illness impaired his judgment and contributed to the killing. 

Emma Rolls, first assistant federal public defender, told the board that Cuesta-Rodriguez suffered as a child in Cuba because his family lived in poverty. She also said Cuesta-Rodriguez grew up watching his stepfather physically abuse his mother. 

Rolls also said Cuesta-Rodriguez’s family admitted him to a psychiatric facility because of his behavior, after suffering skull damage as a child when he was involved in a bus accident. During his stay, medical staff administered electroshock therapy, Rolls said. 

“Carlos had symptoms consistent with PTSD and major depressive disorder, which led to him self-medicating with a variety of substances,” Rolls said. “All of this, in addition to the brain injuries that Carlos suffered as a child, impacted his frontal lobe and contributed to lifelong judgment impairments.”

Callie Heller, the Assistant Federal Public Defender and Cuesta-Rodriguez’s second attorney, told board members he did not receive adequate representation because jurors did not hear evidence about his brain injuries  during his 2007 trial. Heller also submitted a letter in which Cuesta-Rodriguez’s original trial lawyer said the case still haunts her.

But Howard disputed the defense’s claims that Cuesta-Rodriguez had an inadequate trial and said evidence of difficult childhoods, brain injuries and mental illness is common in clemency proceedings.

Cuesta-Rodriguez is scheduled to be executed Aug. 13.