Instead, a 12-member jury on Wednesday took 3 hours to send the suspected Tri-City Bomber captain to death row for planning the murders of 6 men on Jan. 5, 2003.

One day earlier, the same jury found Garza, 30, guilty on of 1 count murder and one count of capital murder on charges he planned and coordinated a drug raid at 2915 E. Monte Cristo Rd. in Edinburg.

Garza pleaded not guilty to the charges that he planned to steal a large amount of marijuana thought to be in the house, called a group of gang members together and drove them to the house. Police said he waited in a vehicle nearby as the masked men charged the home with assault weapons and shot each of the six men several times.

Family members of Garza and the victims, and even some jurors cried as 370th state District Judge Noe Garza formally sentenced Garza to death row, explaining the sentence allows for an automatic appeal, and Garza will be appointed two new lawyers to help his case. As deputies places handcuffs on Garza, he hugged his attorneys, Ralph Martinez and Keno Vasquez, thanking them.

He then turned around and faced family members who filled the courtroom sobbing.

"I want to tell my family I love them. I love them deeply and I didnt kill nobody," he said. "Dont worry. I have faith in God that Ill be back and I will win this case."

As deputies escorted him out of the courtroom, he smiled at his family members and told them not to worry and to "keep the faith."

They answered that they loved him and that God would have the final say. Martinez gave Garzas mother a handful of letters Garza had written for his relatives.

Jurors had decided that Garza was a continual threat to society and had caused or intended the deaths of the six men. They also did not find any mitigating circumstances to justify giving him a life sentence.

Garza is the 2nd man to receive the death penalty in connection with the slayings. In December, a jury sentenced Juan Raul Navarro Ramirez to die for the slayings. Another man charged in the murder, Robert Gene Garza, is already on death row for killing four Donna women in 2002. That slaying was also connected to the local gang, the Tri-City Bombers. There are six other waiting separate capital murder trials in Hidalgo county jail and two others charged have not been caught.

During the sentencing, Garzas attorneys had argued that Garza had a change of heart and given his life to God while in prison. While others around him argued the fate of his life, Garza spent most of the day with his head bowed, resting on his folded arms.

But Hidalgo County Assistant District Attorneys Murray Moore and Joseph Orendain outlined Garzas criminal history to prove he remained a threat.

Garza first entered the Texas Youth Commission at age 16. In July 1991, he was again arrested 4 days before his 17th birthday for stabbing a man. He was released 3 months later on bond. He pleaded guilty to the stabbing, claiming it was in self-defense against a high school rival who started a fight with him.

He was in prison from 1992 until 2002 on those charges as well as with burglarizing a house.

In April 2002, Garza was released from prison but was to be on parole until 2010.

Jesusa Farias, Garzas parole officer, testified that Garza performed well during his parole up until his arrest and had found a job, started alcohol and substance abuse treatment and had begun paying restitution.

Garza had identified anger problems, a need for companionship and associations with negative influences but never mentioned being a member of a gang or asked for help getting out, she said.

Hidalgo County Detention Center Lt. Jack Alaniz testified that Garza did not identify himself as a gang member and was not classified as a gang member in the detention center. He said Garza frequently participated in Bible studies and prayed with prison ministers.

Moore asked if he had heard the saying that "Jesus and Elvis live at the jail."

Alaniz said it was a familiar phrase to describe inmates who "go to jail, they start reading the Bible and get religious. Thats common."

But Garzas religious devotion appeared sincere, testified several ministers that met with him in the jail. Garza studied the Bible often and had begun a correspondence course learning about scripture, said the jails rehabilitation counselor, Juan Parro.

Baptist minister Eduardo Luna said he met with Garza often to discuss scripture and felt Garzas religious interest was genuine.

"I tend to pull away if I dont see a sincerity," he said.

Even before his arrest for the Edinburg murders, Garza had been attending church, alone or with his mother, said Elodia Davila, who counseled Garza at the substance abuse program required for his parole.

Throughout the trial, Garzas mother, Lydia, prayed for her son outside the courtroom and was allowed to see him briefly before the sentencing hearing.

She testified that she was married to his father, Humberto Garza Jr. for 15 years, most, of which Garzas father spent in prison. Her son did not have a good relationship with his father and did not see him very often.

"He was in prison. I was a single parent. He died in the hospice in a prison," Lydia Garza said. "He wasnt around much for my son or for me."

Lydia Garza said her son was "devastated" about his fathers death, which occured a year before the Edinburg murders.

She said her son went to prison at 16 and was 27 when he came out. She knew his friends before he was jailed and did not know him to be a member of any gang.

"Ive always had a good relationship with him," she said.

Under cross-examination, Lydia Garza said she had tried to obtain counseling for her son when he was in trouble in high school. She allowed him to live with her when he was released from prison and helped him pay for half his payments on a pickup truck.

After his mother testified, she told Garza that she loved him as she exited the courtroom. He looked back with tears in his eyes as she left.

In his closing arguments, Martinez asked the jury to give Garza a life sentence that would make him 71 years old before he would be eligible for parole.

He noted that during the decade Garza spent in prison, he had few behavior problems, and none after 1996. Martinez also pointed out that Garza helped police after his arrest and gave them information that helped them arrest other people involved.

"Maybe the Bible study is a Jesus and Elvis con game, but maybe he feels the moral responsibility," Martinez said.

Prosecutors argued that Garzas religious study made him a hypocrite because he knew right and wrong, yet he went along and planned the Monte Cristo raid.

"Hes worse than the man who pulled the trigger. He executed the plan and he executed the 6 individuals," Orendain said, showing jurors pictures of the victims: brothers Jerry Hidalgo and Ray Hidalgo; half brothers Juan Delgado Jr. and Juan Delgado III; Ruben Castillo and Jimmy Almendariz.

Graciella Delgados son and stepson were killed in the murders. She attended most of the trial.