An Arlington man who is a member of a drug cartel and a self-proclaimed catrel hitman could get a new hearing in his brutal death penalty case.
The Texas Court or Criminal Appeals wants a trial judge to determine whether Hector Acosta understood his miranda rights.
Acosta killed two men in an Arlington apartment in 2017. Court reports say Acosta cut one of the bodies in half and buried it under a cement slab, and he left a severed of another body next to a hiking trail near AT&T stadium in Arlington.
A jury had sentenced him to death in 2019.
Prosecutors said Acosta entered gang life in Monterrey, Mexico as a child and later participated in gangs in Mexico and Houston before joining the Cartel del Noreste. Prosecutors said Acosta claimed to have committed kidnappings, tortures and other murders and that while awaiting trial he tried to start a drug trafficking operation in jail.
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