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HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas man is facing execution Wednesday for the strangling and stabbing death of a young North Texas mother more than 20 years ago.

Moises Sandoval Mendoza was condemned for the March 2004 killing of 20-year-old Rachelle O’Neil Tolleson. Prosecutors say Mendoza took Tolleson from her home in Farmersville, leaving her 6-month-old daughter alone. The infant was found cold and wet but safe the next day by Tolleson’s mother. Tolleson’s body was found six days later near a creek.

Mendoza, 41, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection Wednesday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

Evidence in Mendoza’s case showed he also burned Tolleson’s body to hide his fingerprints. Dental records were used to identify her, according to investigators.

Mendoza’s lawyers have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the scheduled execution after lower courts previously rejected his petitions for a stay. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied Mendoza’s request to commute his death sentence to a lesser penalty.

In their petition before the Supreme Court, Mendoza’s attorneys said he was prevented by lower courts from arguing that he had been denied effective assistance of counsel earlier in the appeals process.

Mendoza’s lawyers allege that a previous appeals attorney, as well as his trial lawyer, had failed to challenge critical testimony by a detention officer, Robert Hinton. That testimony was used by prosecutors to persuade jurors that Mendoza would be a future danger to society — a legal finding needed to secure a death sentence in Texas.

Mendoza’s lawyers allege the officer, who worked in the county jail where the inmate was being held after his arrest, gave false testimony that Mendoza had started a fight with another inmate. Mendoza’s lawyers say the other inmate now claims in an affidavit that he believed detention officers wanted him to start the fight, and he was later rewarded for it.

“There is no doubt the jury was listening. During its deliberations, the jury specifically asked about Mendoza’s ‘criminal acts while in jail,’ including the ‘assault on other inmate,’” Mendoza’s lawyers said in their petition to the Supreme Court. “As evidenced by the jury’s notes, there is a reasonable probability that trial counsel’s error in failing to investigate Hinton’s testimony affected the result.”

But the Texas Attorney General’s Office told the Supreme Court that Mendoza’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel has already been found by a lower federal court to be “meritless and insubstantial.”

Even if the detention officer’s testimony were eliminated, the jury heard substantial evidence regarding Mendoza’s future dangerousness and his long history of violence, especially against women, including physically attacking his mother and sister and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, according to the attorney general’s office.

“Finally, given the extreme delay in this two-decade-old case, the public interest weighs heavily against a stay. The State and crime victims have a ’powerful and legitimate interest in punishing the guilty,’” the attorney general’s office said in its petition.

Authorities said that in the days before the killing, Mendoza had attended a party at Tolleson’s home in Farmersville, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northeast of Dallas. On the day her body was found, Mendoza told a friend about the killing. The friend called police and Mendoza was arrested.

Mendoza confessed to police but couldn’t give detectives a reason for his actions, authorities said. He told investigators he repeatedly choked Tolleson, sexually assaulted her and dragged her body to a field, where he choked her again and then stabbed her in the throat. He later moved her body to a more remote location and burned it.

If the execution is carried out, Mendoza would be the third inmate put to death this year in Texas, historically the nation’s busiest capital punishment state, and the 13th in the U.S.

On Thursday, Alabama planned to execute James Osgood for the 2010 rape and murder of a woman.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Hubert Montoya burst out laughing when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security emailed to say he should leave the country immediately or risk consequences of being deported. He is a U.S. citizen.

“I just thought it was absurd,” the Austin, Texas, immigration attorney said.

It was an apparent glitch in the Trump administration’s dismantling of another Biden-era policy that allowed people to live and work in the country temporarily. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is quietly revoking two-year permits of people who used an online appointment app at U.S. border crossings with Mexico called CBP One, which brought in more than 900,000 people starting in January 2023.

The revocation of CBP One permits has lacked the fanfare and formality of canceling Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands whose homelands were previously deemed unsafe for return and humanitarian parole for others from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who came with financial sponsors. Those moves came with official notices in the Federal Register and press releases. Judges halted them from taking effect after advocacy groups sued.

CBP One cancellation notices began landing in inboxes in late March without warning, some telling recipients to leave immediately and others giving them seven days. Targets included U.S. citizens.

Timothy J. Brenner, a Connecticut-born lawyer in Houston, was told April 11 to leave the U.S. “I became concerned that the administration has a list of immigration attorneys or a database that they’re trying to target to harass,” he said.

CBP confirmed in a statement that it issued notices terminating temporary legal status under CBP One. It did not say how many, just that they weren’t sent to all beneficiaries, which totaled 936,000 at the end of December.

CBP said notices may have been sent to unintended recipients, including attorneys, if beneficiaries provided contact information for U.S. citizens. It is addressing those situations case-by-case.

Online chat groups reflect fear and confusion, which, according to critics, is the administration’s intended effect. Brenner said three clients who received the notices chose to return to El Salvador after being told to leave.

“The fact that we don’t know how many people got this notice is part of the problem. We’re getting reports from attorneys and folks who don’t know what to make of the notice,” said Hillary Li, counsel for the Justice Action Center, an advocacy group.

President Donald Trump suspended CBP One for new arrivals his first day in office but those already in the U.S. believed they could stay at least until their two-year permits expired. The cancellation notices that some received ended that sense of temporary stability. “It is time for you to leave the United States,” the letters began.

“It’s really confusing,” said Robyn Barnard, senior director for refugee advocacy at Human Rights First. “Imagine how people who entered through that process feel when they’re hearing through their different community chats, rumors or screenshots that some friends have received notice and others didn’t.”

Attorneys say some CBP One beneficiaries may still be within a one-year window to file an asylum claim or seek other relief.

Notices have been sent to others whose removal orders are on hold under other forms of temporary protection. A federal judge in Massachusetts temporarily halted deportations for more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who came since late 2022 after applying online with a financial sponsor and flying to a U.S. airport at their own expense.

Maria, a 48-year-old Nicaraguan woman who cheered Trump’s election and arrived via that path, said the notice telling her to leave landed like “a bomb. It paralyzed me.”

Maria, who asked to be named only by her middle name for fear of being detained and deported, said in a telephone interview from Florida that she would continue cleaning houses to support herself and file for asylum.

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Salomon reported from Miami. Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed.

UVALDE (ABC) — An attorney representing the families of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting victims confirmed to ABC News on Tuesday night that a settlement was reached and approved by a unanimous vote at a city council meeting in Uvalde, Texas.

Josh Koskoff, one of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit against the city, did not specify the exact terms of the settlement.

The lawsuit responds to the circumstances surrounding the school shooting that took place on May 24, 2022, claiming the lives of two teachers and 19 students.

In addition to a monetary settlement that would be paid out by the city’s insurance, the families were asking for Uvalde Police to adopt new fitness standards for the force and boost officer training, attorneys announced at a press conference in May 2024.

At the time of filing the suit, Koskoff told ABC News that the plaintiffs also were asking the city to maintain the cemetery where many of the victims are buried and to provide an updated accounting of the donations and spending related to May 24.

The plaintiffs were also asking to designate May 24 as an official day of remembrance in Uvalde and to create a committee for a permanent memorial in town.

The attorney confirmed all 21 victims’ families were represented in the lawsuit, but didn’t disclose any others who are listed as plaintiffs.

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AUSTIN (AP) — The executive director of the Texas Lottery Commission has resigned, the latest shake-up at the state’s retail gambling enterprise amid multiple investigations into jackpots in 2023 and earlier this year totaling nearly $200 million, and calls from some lawmakers to shut it down.

The lottery announced Ryan Mindell’s resignation on Monday without comment. A former deputy director and operations director at the lottery, Mindell had held the top job for only about a year following the abrupt resignation of his predecessor.

He leaves as the agency faces at least two investigations ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott and state Attorney General Ken Paxton into the integrity of the lottery prizes, and how the state handled the introduction of courier companies that buy and send tickets on behalf of customers online.

The companies and lottery officials have denied wrongdoing. But Texas state lawmakers are considering forcing several changes, ranging from a legal ban on sales through courier companies to shutting down the agency by taking away all of its funding.

The Texas lottery was established in 1991 and sends a portion of its annual revenue to public education. In 2024, that meant about $2 billion sent to the state’s public school fund.

But two of the biggest jackpots in agency history prompted flares of scrutiny and criticism from media, lawmakers and state officials who question whether they were fairly won and if courier companies should be allowed.

First, a $95 million jackpot in 2023 was awarded when the winners bought nearly every possible number combination — more than 25 million of them. In February, an $83 million ticket was won with a ticket purchased at a courier store. The chain that operates the store has locations in six states.

A Houston Chronicle investigation initially detailed the buying efforts behind the 2023 jackpot, but it was the second one that finally grabbed the attention of prominent state lawmakers, as well as the governor and the state attorney general. An agency that typically garners little attention beyond the millions it awards in jackpots and scratch-off ticket games was suddenly under fire.

Abbott ordered the state’s elite Texas Rangers law enforcement agency to open an investigation, and Paxton announced a probe by the state attorney general’s office. Those remain ongoing.

“The governor expects the Texas Lottery Commission to work within the bounds of the law and to ensure the trust and integrity of the lottery regardless of who leads the agency,” Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris said Tuesday.

A Texas lottery spokesman declined further comment on Mindell’s resignation.

The Legislature, meanwhile, has held public hearings to scold lottery officials for allowing the use of courier companies to bypass state law that requires tickets to be purchased in person. Mindell had told state lawmakers in February that the agency had previously determined it did not have the authority to regulate courier companies, but said the agency would now move to ban them.

The Coalition of Texas Lottery Couriers accused Mindell of pushing the agency to “inaccurately and unfairly” allow the courier companies to “become the scapegoat for its own questionable activities.” The group insisted its members played no role in the 2023 jackpot scheme.

“Mindell’s departure provides an opportunity to reconsider the agency’s politically motivated decisions regarding lottery couriers and restart good faith collaboration between our companies and the TLC,” the coalition said in a statement.

State lawmakers are approaching the final month of their biennial session and have threatened action ranging from writing a courier ban into state law, or even more drastic measures such as shutting down the lottery altogether.

The state Senate has already passed a ban on courier sales, but the measure has yet to get a vote in the House. The House and Senate will soon negotiate a final version of the two-year state budget. The House version currently includes no money for the agency, which would effectively close it down.

But that effort is likely more of a message that lawmakers are serious about making changes than seriously thinking of closing down an agency that generates billions in sales and for public schools annually.

State law allows Texas jackpots to be claimed anonymously, and the April 2023 jackpot was collected two months later in the form of a one-time payment of $57.8 million to a company called Rook TX.

The payment for the February jackpot, however, is on hold pending the state investigations. An attorney for a woman who claims to hold the winning ticket has said it was legally purchased among a group of 10 she bought through the courier, Jacketpocket.