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EDINBURG — The fate of a 31-year-old Weslaco man will soon be in the hands of jurors.
Prosecutors rested Wednesday afternoon on the sixth anniversary of 21-year-old Reynaldo Reyes Jr.’s murder.
The state accuses Victor Lee Alfaro of shooting and killing the man, who is his ex-lover’s brother, after smoking methamphetamine on May 4, 2016.
This is Alfaro’s second trial for the allegations.
His first, in March 2018, ended in mistrial after jurors could not come to a unanimous decision following 13 hours of deliberation. State District Judge Mario E. Ramirez Jr. also acquitted Alfaro on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for allegations he pointed a gun at his ex-lover, Nancy Arlene Lopez, 32, prior to the shooting for a lack of evidence.
During three days of testimony this week, jurors saw 181 exhibits offered by prosecutors and heard testimony from 15 witnesses, including Lopez.
Newspaper archives indicate her testimony may have played a part in the 2018 mistrial due to inconsistencies.
Those inconsistencies were again on trial this week. So was a lack of evidence physically tying Alfaro to the crime scene at a residence in the Edinburg Village Apartments.
A series of experts with the Texas Department of Public Safety crime labs took the stand Wednesday and told jurors how they could not find Alfaro’s fingerprints on the gun or DNA linking him to the gun.
One forensic expert testified that he could only find a trace amount of gunshot residue on Alfaro’s hands, though he did determine gunshot residue existed on Alfaro’s clothes.
Prosecutors have alleged Alfaro wore winter weather gloves while handling the handgun. Lopez, his ex-lover, also made this allegation. Jurors have not seen these gloves and it’s not clear whether Edinburg police investigators ever recovered them.
Jurors also heard that investigators did recover gunshot residue from Lopez’s hands. She voluntarily submitted to that test and told detectives that Alfaro handed her the gun after fatally shooting her little brother.
The jury is tasked with weighing this lack of solid physical evidence with the credibility of Lopez’s testimony.
She is the only person who was inside the apartment with Alfaro and her brother the night he was killed.
Lopez is also an experienced criminal with a history dating back to 2008. She is currently serving a 10-year sentence in federal prison for being involved in an attempt to smuggle nearly 40 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in candles into the United States through Progreso.
Jurors also heard Wednesday of her deceased husband’s ties to a cartel in Mexico where he worked as a sicario before he either died or was killed.
They have also heard how she harbored people in the country illegally inside her Edinburg Village Apartment and duped her sister into straw purchasing a handgun for her, which she gave to Alfaro.
This is the gun prosecutors say Alfaro used to kill Reyes.
Lopez testified Tuesday that she hoped to get intimate with Alfaro on the night of the killing, but instead he smoked methamphetamine and began playing with the gun.
She had met Alfaro at a New Year’s party that year and he moved in that January, just five months before the killing.
There are conflicting stories as to how Alfaro got the gun. According to Lopez, she had her sister buy it after people broke into her apartment and took people she was illegally harboring. Then Lopez gave it to Alfaro.
Her sister, Jessica Reyes, told jurors Wednesday she believed her sister had her buy it as a gift for Alfaro. She said Lopez told her she just needed to present her identification at a pawnshop because Lopez’s was expired.
Lopez is a convicted felon and was at the time and is not allowed to purchase or own a gun.
Nonetheless, prior to the shooting, Lopez said Alfaro began speaking erratically before running into her brother’s room and fatally shooting him three times. Then, Lopez said he pointed the gun at her before handing the weapon to her as he backed out of the apartment and fled.
In December 2016, Lopez testified that she visited Alfaro at the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center where he confessed that he shot and killed Reyes because he looked like a demon while Alfaro was high.
This is just one inconsistency that defense attorney Hector Hernandez Jr. pointed out Wednesday to Joaquin Mendoza, the lead investigator in the case.
Lopez testified that she immediately visited Mendoza to report this, but Mendoza testified that she visited with him several days after that meeting.
Hernandez also asked Mendoza why Lopez never told the investigator that Alfaro placed the gun directly to her head as opposed to just pointing at her.
On Tuesday, this is what Lopez said and it’s not anything Mendoza said she ever told him. Rather, Mendoza said she only told him that Alfaro pointed the gun at her.
The attorney also pointed out that Lopez never told him about Alfaro loading the magazine prior to the shooting or that he allegedly smoked methamphetamine right before her brother’s death. Instead, Mendoza said Lopez told him that Alfaro was a daily user of methamphetamine.
To all of these points, Mendoza said Lopez was in shock and traumatized by the death of her brother that night, which he believes has an impact on her memory, though he did admit Lopez had not told him certain things that she said while on the stand.
Still, Mendoza testified that he believes Lopez, who stayed at the scene and cooperated with investigators, and the heart of Lopez’s story has not changed since the early morning hours of May 4, 2016, according to Mendoza.
With the state resting, Hernandez and his co-counsel O. Rene Flores will have an opportunity to present a case with witnesses and evidence.
Following any defense presentation, Hernandez and Flores will work on a jury charge with prosecutors Jay Garza and Gabriella Guerena.
Once that’s done, both sides will close and Alfaro’s future will be decided by a jury of his peers.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:
Second murder trial begins for Weslaco man accused of killing ex’s brother
Tense testimony: Suspect’s former lover accuses him of killing her little brother
