HOUSTON – A 27-year-old father will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole after a Harris County jury convicted him Thursday in the killing of his infant daughter.
Luis Luna has been in jail since August 2020 after prosecutors said he brutally raped and murdered his 8-month-old daughter, Savayah Mason, inside his west Harris County apartment.
Recommended Videos
Luna was separated from the child’s mother at the time, who had dropped Mason off to spend time with Luna when the killing happened.
Luna has always maintained his innocence in the case and claimed he performed CPR when he found her unresponsive. She died at the hospital and an autopsy revealed suffocation, blunt force injuries, and that she had been sexually assaulted.
During the investigation, police found bloody baby wipes inside Luna’s apartment.
“Her daughter was brutally murdered, taken from her too early ... she didn’t get to ever celebrate her first birthday, she didn’t get to take her to pre-K here, see her take her first steps or any of that stuff. So, she missed out on all that stuff because of what this man did and it’s tormented her,” Harris County prosecutor Edward Appelbaum told KPRC 2 in an exclusive interview after the verdict.
The trial lasted 10 days and the jury reached a verdict within a matter of hours.
“They’re difficult because they involve children and especially a child of this age. I mean, she couldn’t walk. She couldn’t talk. She had no voice, and so the jury really was the voice for this little girl and spoke for her by its verdict,” Appelbaum said.
Since it was a capital murder case, Luna won’t be eligible for parole, prosecutors said.