HUNTSVILLE (August 25, 2015)

The Texas Count of Criminal Appeals Tuesday stopped the scheduled execution of a Nicaraguan man convicted of killing a Houston high school teacher during a robbery more than 18 years ago.

Bernardo Tercero, 39, was scheduled to receive a lethal injection Wednesday evening in Huntsville.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a reprieve Tuesday after attorneys contended in an appeal that a prosecution witness at Tercero’s trial in 2000 gave false testimony.

The appeals court has returned the case to the trial court to review the claim.

Tercero was convicted in the shooting death of Robert Berger, 38, who was in a Houston dry cleaners shop in March 1997 when Tercero came in to rob it.

Prosecutors said Tercero was in the U.S. illegally at the time of the slaying.

Source: Associated Press, August 25, 2015