Nearly 25 years after Louis Castro Perez was found guilty of murdering two of his friends and a 10-year-old girl, his sister remembers him proudly - despite all that happened.
Perez died while on death row in May of 2024, but he maintained his innocence in the case until his last breath. In 1999, he was sentenced to death for the murders of Michelle Fulwiler, Cinda Barz, and Barz’s 9-year-old daughter, Staci Mitchell.
He claimed that the evidence was largely circumstantial and his prints were never found on the murder weapon. His sister, Delia Perez Meyer, became a death penalty abolitionist, inspired by her brother's courage while in prison.
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She fought alongside him for his freedom, right up until he died from health issues while locked up in the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas. She visited him every Thursday for 25 years.
"He knew in his heart he was innocent," Meyer told the Texas Standard . "And so that’s the way he lived his life," explaining that he had a sense of humor until his last days. "He was a jokester; we always laughed when I visited."
The murder Perez was accused of took place on Sept. 10, 1998. The next day, a friend of Meyer's called the family home and asked if anyone had seen Louis. He filled the family in on the murder and accusations. "And that was the introduction to this nightmare," Meyer said.
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Perez was friends with the two murdered women, Fulwiler and Barz, and frequently spent time at their house. He slept there the night before the murders he said. But he went out in the morning, and when he returned, he says he found the two women dead. Panicking, he fled the house.
"Around 5:30 that evening, he opened the door and found Cinda on the floor," Meyer said. "He picked her up and she scratched him and that’s basically what sent him to death row." Perez testified that he'd been drinking and using drugs that day.
"My brother walked away from that house that day, rather than calling 911," Meyer said. "And everybody, including the police, jumped to conclusions."
His Texas state government record states: "Perez entered the residence of a 38-year-old white female and her daughter, a 10-year-old black female. Also occupying the home was a 30-year-old white female. Perez struck the two adult victims on the head with a cast iron skillet, resulting in their deaths. Perez then strangled the 10-year-old with a pair of pantyhose, also resulting in her death."
But Perez and his sister always argued that while his fingerprints were all over the house, because he visited often, they were never found on any of the murder weapons. The argument did not sway the jury or the judge.
Once Perez was on death row, he fought on behalf of himself and other prisoners to abolish the death penalty. He wanted to be free, and created artworks while locked in his tiny cell. In Texas, death row prisoners are not given access to classes or recreational activities.
According to Windows to Death Row , Perez drew and wrote messages that “'Sueltame! Let me go out of here!' It’s like they’re squeezing the life out of me. I felt a lot of frustration and fear. But I will never allow this place to change me. Death penalty is not about justice, it’s about revenge and payback...I’ve been on death row for 17 years. When I heard that door slam on me, 'bang!'"
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