Texas killer of Brazilian couple loses appeal

A suburban Dallas man condemned for the slaying of a Brazilian man nine years ago has lost a federal court appeal of his conviction and death sentence, moving him a step closer to execution.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a ruling late Monday, rejected the appeal from Michael Sigala. Sigala, 31, of Plano, was sentenced to die for the fatal shooting of Kleber Santos.

Santos, 28, and his wife, Lilian, 25, were shot at their Plano apartment in August 2000. The woman also was raped and the couple's wedding rings were stolen and subsequently pawned. Sigala was arrested about two months after the killings while on probation for a robbery conviction.

In his appeal, Sigala contended his trial judge in Collin County improperly allowed testimony and medical records from a psychiatrist during the sentencing phase of his trial. He also argued his trial lawyers were deficient for not objecting to the testimony and for not developing and presenting mitigating evidence for the jury to consider when deciding if he should get the death penalty.

The New Orleans-based appeals court said it agreed with lower courts that found mitigating evidence "would have been unlikely to help him."

The court said while evidence showed Sigala's mother "had taken pains to take care of him financially and medically," he had abused drugs, was expelled from school, had a lengthy criminal history of theft, marijuana possession and robbery, participated in gang activities and had been diagnosed with an anti-social personality disorder.

"It is hard to see how the additional evidence Sigala claims ... would have added so significantly to his mitigation case that the outcome would likely have been different," the court said.

In a videotaped statement to police following his arrest, Sigala said the couple were shot in self-defense after Santos struck Sigala's acquaintance with a baseball bat. He said he and a companion went to the apartment to sell Santos some heroin, but authorities found no evidence Santos or his wife ever used drugs. A toxicology report also found no illegal drugs in either victim.

Santos was an engineer for a cell phone manufacturer whose job took him from Brazil to Texas in January 2000, a month after he and his wife married. Lilian Santos remained in Brazil to continue her veterinary studies at the University of Sao Paolo and was visiting her husband in Plano during a school break.

Court records show Sigala was on a one-day furlough from a drug treatment facility on the day of the slayings so he could find a job. The bodies were found by a neighbor after Santos failed to show up at work.

A camera stolen from the apartment and pawned led police to wedding rings that also had been pawned. That investigation led to Sigala, who also was charged with Lilian Santos' murder but never tried.

A man who helped Sigala pawn the items was not charged in the deaths but was sentenced 35 years in prison for violating probation from a previous aggravated robbery conviction.

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