EDINBURG — During emotional testimony Monday afternoon, family members of a 31-year-old Mission man accused in a 2016 quadruple shooting at a Palmview H-E-B described his increasing paranoia in the month prior to that fateful day.
The testimony came from 31-year-old Raul Lopez’s mother, his sister and his ex-wife.
Lopez is charged with murder, three counts of attempted murder, three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and a count of attempted capital murder of multiple persons.
He is accused of shooting and killing 48-year-old Mario Pulido and injuring Rafael Martinez, then 37, Frailan Garza, then 51, and Billy Joe Martinez, then 33, on Nov. 28, 2016.
Lopez has pleaded not guilty and is pursuing an insanity defense, which began Monday after the state rested following testimony from a Texas Department of Public Safety gunshot residue expert and from forensic pathologist Norma Jean Farley, who told the jury Pulido sustained eight gunshot wounds to the back and one to his leg.
Testimony has shown Lopez walked up to a window in a breakroom at approximately 3:30 a.m. and fired at least 15 shots using a 9mm Desert Eagle handgun into a breakroom where overnight employees were eating lunch.
Farley, who conducted Pulido’s autopsy, determined two of the bullets that hit the man in the back went through his heart and were the fatal wounds.
Monday, the fourth day of testimony, was marked by Lopez’s ex-wife, Kimberly Diaz, who tearfully testified how in the year leading up to the shooting at the grocery store on Goodwin Road and U.S. Expressway 83 that her then-husband began sleeping less and less.
Diaz told jurors she confronted Lopez about needing to sleep, and for a time, he used sleeping aids, which only worked for a bit.
Diaz said it got to the point that a couple times a week Lopez would go without sleeping for a day at a time and when he did, it was only for an hour or two.
There has been no evidence of drug use presented to the jury.
But his paranoia escalated in the month leading up to the shooting, Diaz, along with Lopez’s mother, Benicia Saenz-Montoya, and his sister, Brizeldy Lopez, told jurors.
Diaz testified how during that period Lopez got to a point where he would only communicate with her through a notebook. After writing a message on a page, she told the jury he would rip it out, burn it outside, and then look through the window because “they” were watching him.
When Diaz confronted him about it, she said Lopez would tell her she wouldn’t understand and that “they” were out to get him.
“I found it weird, yes,” Diaz said.
His ex-wife said she would push him to say who “they” were but Lopez would only get upset that she didn’t believe him, and would tell her she was probably collaborating with the government.
Diaz also told jurors Lopez unplugged all the televisions in the house because he believed he was being watched and listened to through the devices and also that he removed the radio from his 2011 red Chevrolet pickup truck.
All three women testified that he did not want phones around when they met in person and would go so far as to remove phone batteries, though Diaz admitted on cross-examination that he would text and call her, but she said those exchanges became more and more brief in the lead-up to the shooting.
She also said during cross examination that Lopez once climbed a tree to look for antennas. His sister and mother also testified about problems he had with aggression and paranoia during his teenage years, and said he had a rough childhood that began even before he was born.
Saenz told the jury Lopez’s biological father hit her in the stomach when she was eight months pregnant with her son, resulting in a doctor administering a premature birth.
Lopez was not initially breathing when he was born, Sanez said.
She also tearfully recalled how Lopez’s brother was shot 13 times in Mexico and how he had to identify his sibling at a young age, explaining the incident greatly impacted her son.
Both Saenz and Brizeldy, Lopez’s sister, also talked about an incident in which he was committed to a rehabilitation facility where he was supposed to undergo a psychological evaluation after being kicked out of school in Mexico for verbally confronting one of his high school teachers whom he thought was talking about him.
That treatment, however, only lasted 10 days instead of six months because Saenz learned that her son was being mistreated in the facility.
She said he was made to stand on his feet for days at a time as punishment and had lost weight, while Brizeldy testified that he was tied to a bed.
The three women also said Lopez believed all of his co-workers at H-E-B were talking behind his back and knew too much about his personal life.
His sister also said she and Lopez watched their biological father do unspecified things to their mother as children, which was traumatic.
As of Monday, the jury had not heard from any defense experts indicating Lopez has been diagnosed with a mental illness.
His mother also said she believed her son needed psychiatric treatment, but she could not afford it.
Testimony is scheduled to continue Tuesday morning.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:
Palmview H-E-B ‘mass shooting’ trial may come down to a battle of the experts
