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Victor Lee Alfaro was found guilty of shooting and killing 21-year-old Reynaldo Reyes Jr. on May 4, 2016 and sentenced to 58 years in prison for murdering his former lover’s little brother.
This was the second time Alfaro was on trial.
His first ended in a mistrial in March 2018 after the jury could not come to a unanimous decision on the murder charge. Newspaper archives indicate Nancy Lopez’s testimony, Reyes’ sister, likely played a part in the unsuccessful 13 hours of deliberation.
Here’s the full coverage of the second trial.
>> DAY ONE
Prosecutor Jay Garza acknowledged Nancy Arlene Lopez’s troubled past, but told jurors that allowing Alfaro into her life as a lover and introducing her to Reyes was Lopez’s biggest mistake.
Garza outlined the state’s version again on the first day, telling jurors that Alfaro and Lopez were going to have sex the night of the murder, but instead Alfaro decided to smoke some methamphetamine and began speaking erratically before pulling out a gun, running into Reyes’ room and shooting him before fleeing the scene.
Witness testimony began in the new trial with two people who lived in the Edinburg Village Apartments, which are right down the street from the courthouse, at the time of the killing.
Second murder trial begins for Weslaco man accused of killing ex’s brother
>> DAY TWO
Nancy Lopez took the witness stand shackled, handcuffed and dressed in an orange jumpsuit, and told jurors how she lives in an Alabama federal prison where she is serving 10 years for a drug trafficking conviction.
Prosecutor Jay Garza asked Lopez to walk jurors through the night and early morning her brother died six years ago. Some of her testimony contradicted her former neighbor Mirna Light’s testimony.
Through the entirety of her testimony — inconsistencies and all — she steadfastly maintained that Alfaro shot her brother and that she loved her brother and had no reason to harm him.
Tense testimony: Suspect’s former lover accuses him of killing her little brother
>> DAY THREE
Prosecutors rested Wednesday afternoon on the sixth anniversary of 21-year-old Reynaldo Reyes Jr.’s murder.
During three days of testimony, jurors saw 181 exhibits offered by prosecutors and heard testimony from 15 witnesses, including Lopez.
Prosecutors rest in Weslaco man’s murder trial; defense to take center stage
>> DAY FOUR
The last piece of evidence jurors heard before closing arguments and breaking for deliberations Thursday was that Nancy Lopez, a key eyewitness for prosecutors, lied on the stand.
Her statement is the only confession that surfaced in testimony or evidence during Alfaro’s second trial on the murder allegations, and Lopez is the only person who allegedly witnessed the shooting.
However, testimony from a Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant sucked all the air out of that claim on Thursday morning when jail visitation records revealed Lopez never visited Alfaro since his 2016 arrest.
During closing arguments, prosecutor Jay Garza admitted Lopez was probably lying, but he said the evidence shows that she is not lying about key elements of the crime.
Final day of testimony in Edinburg murder trial marked by perjury; jury deliberating
>> JURY VERDICT
The jury, which deliberated for approximately nine hours over two days, found Alfaro guilty of shooting and killing Reyes on May 4, 2016.
That morning, the case inched toward a mistrial after a juror called in due to severe illness. Since two jurors were dismissed for serious personal reasons, this left only 11 jurors available instead of 12.
During a hearing, defense attorneys Hector Hernandez Jr. and O. Rene Flores told state District Judge Mario E. Ramirez Jr. that they advised their client to ask for a mistrial. But Alfaro, who has been jailed at the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center for six years, told Ramirez that he wanted the jury of 11 of his peers to continue deliberating.
Avoiding second mistrial, jurors find Weslaco man guilty in 2018 murder
>> SENTENCING
Jurors sentenced Alfaro to 58 years in prison for murdering his former lover’s little brother.
Weslaco man sentenced to nearly 6 decades in prison for killing ex-lover’s little brother
