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EDINBURG — Body camera footage played for jurors Tuesday showed the frantic moments following state trooper Moises Sanchez’s shooting, moments marked by life-saving efforts from colleagues who told him to “hold on.”
The second day of the death penalty trial for Victor Alejandro Godinez, who is accused of shooting 49-year-old trooper in Edinburg on April 6, 2019, continued Tuesday with the graphic footage from a police officer who responded to the scene and rendered aid.
Edinburg police investigator Roberto Miguel Reyes was the first witness called to testify Tuesday morning. He had been working the evening shift that day when he responded to a call about an officer down on Maltese Street in Edinburg.
Reyes’ body camera footage showed him speeding to the scene of the shooting. Once on scene, he was seen hastily grabbing a backpack with a medical kit and running past other police units with red and blue lights to Sanchez, who was shown lying on his side in a pool of blood as a small group of first responders and bystanders rendered aid.
A woman could be heard saying “hold on, Sanchez” as Reyes began cutting off Sanchez’s bulletproof vest and shirt. Sanchez can be heard struggling to breath.
Godinez sat between his two attorneys wearing a black suit. He wore glasses and had a full beard. His head was shaved revealing tattoos on his head. He glanced sparingly at the television monitor to his right displaying the body camera footage, but spent most of the time staring straight forward.
The video ended with Reyes helping EMS place Sanchez on a gurney.
“It’s something I’d never felt before in my life,” Reyes said during his testimony as he recalled the details of that fateful night. “It was like a punch to the stomach seeing trooper Sanchez lying there.”
Prosecutors called Edinburg police officer Esmerelda Lopez to the stand, who on the night of the shooting was working as a crime scene investigator with the McAllen Police Department.
Lopez had been called to the scene of a major crash involving two trucks on the corner of 10th Street and Freddy Gonzalez Drive, just where the McAllen city limits end and the Edinburg city limits begin.
She had been tasked with taking photographs of the scene, which prosecutors showed to the court. The photos showed a white Ford truck with damage to its front side and a brown Ford truck with damage to the front driver’s side.
The white truck was identified as having belonged to Godinez, who was not at the scene when Lopez arrived. Photos showed a handgun magazine in a backseat pocket, an empty Budweiser glass bottle on the front passenger seat, a cellphone case without a cellphone on the dashboard, and a document from Walmart Auto Care Center with Godinez’s name.
Prosecutors also called officer Mateo Salinas of the McAllen Police Department to the stand. He was the first police officer to arrive at the scene of the crash.
Salinas described the occupants of the brown truck as a family of four. The driver of the vehicle appeared to be bleeding from the head and having trouble breathing. The fire department was called to extract the driver from the vehicle, and all four passengers were taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital to treat their injuries.
He said that the driver of the white truck was not seen. He called dispatch to run the registration of the truck, who identified the owner as Godinez. Salinas said that he could smell a strong odor of alcohol coming from the truck before entering. He said that he saw multiple open beer containers.
Salinas’ testimony ended with him describing having heard gunshots coming from Edinburg. The jury was then released for lunch.
Here’s the latest update:
DPS Trooper Moises Sanchez’s widow takes the stand in suspect’s trial
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:
Sister of off-duty cop recalls frantic Edinburg scene where DPS trooper was shot
