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The 28-year-old Edinburg man accused of shooting and killing Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Moises Sanchez legally bought the alleged murder weapon.
Victor Alejandro Godinez is charged with capital murder of a peace officer following the death of Sanchez who died in August 2019 in Houston following a surgery, months after the shooting.
He’s also charged with two counts of attempted capital murder of a peace officer after Godinez allegedly shot at two Edinburg police officers during the manhunt.
The video interview consisted of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, agents asking Godinez questions regarding the guns he owned and his history of drug use.
One ATF agent listed the firearms Godinez owned in his collection, some of which consisted of several Glocks, an assault rifle, an AK-47 and more.
They asked Godinez if he was willing to sign a consent form in order to relinquish his firearms to the authorities and explained that because if he were to be convicted, he wouldn’t be allowed to own firearms as part of the conviction. Godinez then signed the form.
When asked about the alleged murder weapon, a .357 revolver, Godinez explained that he had bought it off a friend he worked with at the refineries in the Houston area for about $750.
He said that his friend had shown him the gun and Godinez expressed interest in buying it off of him because he wanted a revolver to add to his collection.
The agents asked if he had ever been denied the purchase of a weapon before and Godinez explained that he had once due to a pending hit-and-run charge when he tried to buy back a gun he had pawned off.
One agent asked him a question he described as “off the wall.”
According to the agent, Godinez had many cigar wrappers covering the wall of one side of his room and asked why.
Godinez said he just thought it would be cool to decorate his wall with them, which led to agents asking about his drug use.
“I loved smoking marijuana,” Godinez said. “It was crucial.”
He went on to explain that he had stopped smoking a year before the shooting because, at the time, he was trying to get a job in the refineries, but that it was the only drug he would use.
