Day 35: A 9-year-old girl is kidnapped as she walks home from school
December 6th, 2009, 2:00 am · 40 Comments · posted by Larry Welborn
1989: Richard Lucio DeHoyos, who called himself “Uncle Festus” after the Addams family character, received the death penalty for the March, 20, 1989, killing of 9-year-old Nadia Puente of Santa Ana.
She was kidnapped as she walked home from school.
Nadia Puente
De Hoyos confessed to posing as a teacher and abducting Nadia on her way home from school, driving her to a motel room, raping her, killing her and then dumping her body into a Griffith Park trash can.
During his trial, DeHoyos barked like a dog and flipped over the counsel table when a recording of his confession was being played. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in August 1993. DeHoyos remains on Death Row.
Pictured above: Convicted murderer Richard Lucio De Hoyos in Orange County Superior Court Friday, where he growled and barked like a dog during proceedings. Register File Photo
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Barking like a dog to pretend he was insane. People like him justify the death penalty.
I remember Nadia – we played at her house a couple times. If I remember correctly, she was one of three kids, the only girl.. After she died her mom suffered a nervous breakdown.. Even though I was only like 9 years old, I wil never forget her funeral. her mom fainted like 3 times and was crying to the point she couldnt breath. this man is a monster.. I hope Ms. Puente and family have found peace..
Its a horrific way for anyone to die, and what do you want to bet he has done it before but was never caught?
I cant imagine what a parent must go through with that
Wow I always thought he was called Uncle Fester…
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Why do we have to spend our tax dollars on this freak, he should fry for his heinous crime . . . send him to Texas, they now how to do it right!
YOU ARE SO RIGHT…BURN HIM UP!!
Didn’t he know it was Uncle Fester not Festus?
So sad this dog still is alive!! He confesses and still gets many years of appeals! Death Row?? Die of Old Age Row is more like it. The picture says it all Rabid dog take me out back and put a bullit in my head!
I agree.. he should have been put to sleep a very long time ago. I don’t think taxpayers should have to pay for this M-Fer to stay alive. Maybe one day he’ll have a couple inmates to do to him what he did to that innocent little girl, then execute him. I’ll pull the handle myself!
Yup, just like in Iran.
I say we stick with the justice system we have. It’s not perfect because there is no such thing. But I much prefer it to the fascist justice you espouse.
P.S. It’s bullet
Judy, They need to have a fair trial and take precautions to make sure that those convicted actually are guilty, but the system is totally broken when appeals keep dragging out for 20 yrs or so.
Probably won’t happen right now with the mess the state is in, but they need to make it a priority to speed up the required appeals. They need to streamline the process with judges and attorneys to actually work on getting through the process as quickly as possible.
They should limit delays unless there is good cause, maybe if possible put some time limits on each stage of the process unless actual good cause can be shown for why it needs more time (and I don’t just mean that it isn’t convenient for the judge or atty to work on it).
It may cost some more money in personnel time to prioritize getting the appeal process done as quickly as possible, but considering what it causes to feed and house them and pay medical care for all those years it would probably work out.
It might even discourage some killers if they knew that there was even a reasonable chance that if they kill they would be executed within just a few years.
why has his death sentenced not been carried out he doesnt deserve to be on death row. He deserves to be dead.How incredibly sad for this childs family
Stupid creep, , his growling dog routine didn’t fool anyone. His attorney looks like she just wants to fall through the floor. I agree, , a rabid dog needs to be put down.
A disservice to “Gunsmoke” fans calling him himself Uncle Festus, perhaps Uncle Fester, but still an insult to Addams Family fans.
why is this guy still alive??? 17 years later??? How long does Nadia’s family have to go without closure!?
I’m confused. Did he call himself “Uncle Festus” (Festus was on Gunsmoke), or “Uncle FestER” (the bald uncle on Addams Family.`
This piece of shit is still alive.What the F*&# is wrong with Californias JUDICIAL SYSTEM.We are a bankrupt state cutting jobs creating furlougs and in the same state rests 900 hundred inmates on death row having three square meals not worrying about a dam thing because the inmates are in protective custody its like a walk in the park for them costing us taxpayers millions of dollars to house them yearly.The state should load them up in a ship and blow it up in the middle of the ocean that will solve alot of people heartache and the state millions a year. HOPE THAT GUY ROTS IN HELL….
Thanks to our pathetic liberal system, we protect prisoners/murderers/rapist/childmolesters more that law-abiding, tax-paying citizens.
This maggot should have gotten a bullet to the temple….. Nothing more.
THAT would be justice, AND save a hell a lot of money, too!
I just gotta say that this piece of work and all the rest of his peers there on The Detour Row. Are useless pieces of meat that I wouldn’t even feed to zoo animals. Put them all on San Clemente Island it’s a 60 mile swim to the mainland. The Coast Guard could close the surrounding waters to pleasure boating and fishing. Aircraft drops of MREs could sustain them. Then when the Navy needs target pratice,
well you get the picture.
Or send over here to my place I’ll even buy my own bullets.
Instead of doing scientific research/testing on animals, we should do the testing on Death Row inmates.
NoMasIllegas ~ My thoughts exactly!!! I have ALWAYS said that this is how they should repay society for the chaos they’ve caused. And the great benefit to testing on humans (and these wastes of space are about as close to human as we can get) is that many times, animal testing does not prove of any benefit because the very medicine being tested has a very different reaction/outcome on animals vs. humans.
I’d be the first one to sign that petition drive to get it on the ballot as a proposition, for sure!!!! Pitifully, though, the ACLU would immediately go for an injunction. HEY…….let’s start a petition drive to do away w/the ACLU…………just saying………..
Somebody correct me if I am wrong, but FESTUS (sp) was a character on the “Wild, Wild West” or “Big Valley” TV show (I was a little shaver, so I could be wrong). I DO know, however, that the Addams Family character was Uncle FESTER. Another mistake by the OCR or was the crook too dumb to know who he was naming himself after?
Why do we even have the death penalty if it is not going to be used? If there was ever a person who deserved this punishment, this guy is him. Give him his injection now or just get rid of the “threat” of capital punishment. What a tragedy.
Thirtyplus,
Festus was an old character from Gunsmoke. The actor that portrayed him was Ken Curtis. You’re right about Uncle Fester from the Addams Family.
I didn’t find any other signs of the Fester (Festus) reference. I wonder if someone called him that, and that he did not himself. He does not seem the type who would have been an Adams Family fan.
The fellow does seem to have serious mental illness, and thought that is not sufficient to get one out of a murder charge, it does seem pretty bad, and not necessarily one of “liberal” legal system issues.
It is necessary to take the utmost care before administering the ultimate punishment that one can extract, death, and I personally do not see it as a liberal vs. conservative (or lately whack jobs around here) issue. It is necessary for the legal system to work at all levels, but especially with these cases. If one cannot have faith that the legal systems works in these cases, one could not respect it at any other level, including those which we may encounter.
jim st, yeah the legal system needs to work, but taking 20 yrs or so to exhaust appeals is not working. OK, they are entitled to appeals. Do them faster. require that atty’s, judges and all get on as fast track calendar as it reasonable.
I guess they don’t care so they don’t even start the appeal process for well over a year. They need to do what they have to do, but expedite it without a bunch of delays just because its not convenient for someone.
The right to a speedy trial should apply to the public as well–not just the accused. We should have the right to have the accused be tried as quickly as possible.
And they need to get back to the issue of guilt vs innocence, not get so hung up on procedural issues.
Why all these old crime cases in the news? Is this to distract from the current crimes?
Yeah, Dina… these old crimes are so that OCR can distract us from ” the current crimes”. Like a newspaper wants to “distract” us from what sells newspapers.
Smart.
In the picture above, that must be his defense counsel siting next to him. From her general demeanor, you can tell that she must have really enjoyed defending this idiot.
Wake me up when they finally throw the switch on this mistake of nature. God bless the little girl and her family.
Festus was a character from Gunsmoke, after Dennis Weaver left. Uncle Fester was the character from the Addams Family.
i remember lil’ nadia puente. she was abducted from diamond elementary in santa ana.
Sick guy what a sick guy..he will burn in hell
Barking like a dog just to pretend to be crazy? I say feed him to the worse criminals in San Quintin. He’ll learn his lesson there. Death penalty for sure!
FRY HIM!!!! He is a coldblooded MURDERER, he gave his victim no chance at life. WE are talking about someone that kidnapped, RAPED and murdered a NINE yr old. That should make every single american with an ounce of compassion mad.
He doesn’ t need jail, he needs rehabilitation and subsequent release into society ……………. so that I can run him down with my F350.
DeHoyos the, POS that he is, wanted the Death Pealty becasue he knew if he got life some other inmate would have done to him what society never will do, Give him the Death penalty. Now on Death row he is protected from this happening. How Ironic!!!!!!!!
Thank You all for your support. Nadia was my cousin (my uncle is my father’s brother). I can tell you this much my family has never been the same since that tragic day not to mention Nadias’. He completely destroyed them. Nadia was the only girl in the family of 5 siblings. I don’t believe they will ever find clousure even if this thing is put to death. But at least it will prevent him from putting another family through the hell we have been through. Once again thank you all for your support.
so sorry for your family’s loss
THIS LITTLE ANGEL IS WITH GOD NOW
This POS deserves the same fate as the little girl received except 10 times over in a slow manner so he can suffer over&over.