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EDINBURG — A jury sentenced a 31-year-old Weslaco man on Monday afternoon to 58 years in prison for murdering his former lover’s little brother.
Jurors sentenced Victor Lee Alfaro after deliberating for close to four hours after they found him guilty on Friday of shooting and killing 21-year-old Reynaldo Reyes Jr. on May 4, 2016.
This was Alfaro’s second trial for the allegations. His first trial in 2018 ended in mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision after 13 hours of deliberation.
This time prosecutors walked jurors though the crime scene and the evidence collected, with testimony indicating Alfaro smoked methamphetamine prior to shooting Reyes three times before fleeing.
On Friday, prosecutors Jay Garza and Gabriella Guerena asked jurors for a stiff sentence prior to their deliberations.
The prosecutors brought witnesses from probation, as well as a jailer and former jailer at the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center.
The jurors heard how Alfaro did two stints in state prison for theft cases and about two fights he was involved in at the county jail, though he never faced any charges related to those scuffles.
During opening arguments, Guerena told jurors the state sought a 60-year sentence, but during closing arguments, Garza told jurors that if they didn’t feel that sentence was adequate, they should instead sentence Alfaro to 99 years.
Defense attorneys Hector Hernandez Jr. and O. Rene Flores countered, saying Alfaro’s criminal history did not reflect him graduating to the highest crime of murder, but instead the history of a low level offender.
The attorneys also brought testimony from Alfaro’s mother and two of his sisters that showed jurors a picture of a man who took care of his younger siblings while his mother worked long hours and his father worked out of state.
They contended that Alfaro is a dedicated family man.
The week-long trial saw the dismissal of three jurors, two of whom had serious personal issues and another who became seriously ill.
His second trial also nearly ended in mistrial because there were only 11 jurors left, but instead of asking for a mistrial as advised by his attorneys, Alfaro made the choice to continue the proceedings.
Throughout the trial, prosecutors contended their key eyewitness, 32-year-old Nancy Arlene Lopez, had troublesome testimony but said the main parts of her testimony remained the same throughout the trial.
She stayed at the scene and cooperated with police questioning and testing.
However, Lopez is a convicted felon and is currently serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for trying to smuggle nearly 40 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in candles into the United States through Progreso. There were numerous inconsistencies throughout her testimony.
She also committed perjury on the stand when she claimed that she visited Alfaro in the county jail, where she claimed he had confessed to her that he smoked meth before shooting her brother.
Defense attorneys showed jurors jail visitation logs that indicated she, in fact, had not visited him once throughout the six years he spent behind bars since being arrested for the murder in 2016.
Alfaro will be eligible for parole when he is 55-years-old.
