Judge Sentences DeHoyos to Death : Courts: He says the drifter’s mental condition did not excuse his rape and killing of a Santa Ana girl he kidnaped in 1989.

A Texas drifter who kidnaped, raped and killed a 9-year-old girl four years ago was sentenced Friday to die in the gas chamber, after the girl’s mother made an impassioned plea to the judge.

“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this moment,” Sara Puente told the judge before he sentenced Richard Lucio DeHoyos, 36. “That bastard deserves to be put away in a box six feet underground, and even that’s being kind to someone like him.”

DeHoyos, who had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and has been known to bark and growl in court, told the judge he was sorry for his actions. But he showed little emotion as he became the 27th Orange County defendant sentenced to Death Row.

Last June, a jury recommended that DeHoyos should be put to death for killing young Nadia Puente of Santa Ana on March 20, 1989. It was the second time a jury had convicted DeHoyos of the crime and had recommended the death sentence. The first verdict was overturned because of jury misconduct.

Nadia was walking home from school when DeHoyos lured her into his car by posing as a teacher who needed help carrying books. DeHoyos testified that he attacked the girl while in a rage over losing his job at a Westminster fast-food restaurant earlier that day. He was furious at the manager who fired him, he testified.

DeHoyos took the child to a motel where he raped and then suffocated her. Later, he wrapped her body in a blanket and dumped it in a trash bin at Griffith Park in Los Angeles.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey acknowledged that DeHoyos had mental problems and “was a misfit” and “maladjusted.” But he said that DeHoyos’ mental condition did not excuse his behavior.

“There are many people in our society who are mentally ill, but they don’t kill children,” he said.