February 28, 2024
District Attorney Greg Willis’s Statement on Tonight’s Execution of Ivan Cantu
“After over two decades of multiple state and federal courts comprehensively reviewing his conviction, Ivan Cantu has finally met with justice tonight. My hopeful prayer is for the victims’ families, friends, and loved ones to find a long-awaited sense of peace.
Cantu’s guilt was confirmed with clear and powerful evidence, including but not limited to:
- Cantu’s fingerprint distinctly marked on the magazine of the firearm – the weapon not only used in the heinous murders but also discovered at Cantu’s ex-girlfriend’s apartment;
- The presence of one victim’s DNA on the firearm that has Cantu’s print;
- The victims’ DNA on the bloody clothing found in Cantu’s apartment;
- One victim’s keys found in Cantu’s apartment;
- A bullet embedded in Cantu’s apartment wall, fired from the same murder weapon; and
- The victim’s bracelet recovered from Cantu’s girlfriend’s family home in Arkansas.
Further damning post-conviction revelations, highlighted by Cantu’s pre-trial admission of guilt to his attorneys and bolstered by corroborative DNA test results, leave no doubt as to his guilt.”
