The 13th Court of Appeals on Thursday affirmed the murder conviction and life sentence of a 53-year-old man who insisted on representing himself at trial over the 2018 stabbing death of his neighbor in Pharr.
A jury convicted Feliciano Flores Avalos in 2019 of stabbing and killing Julio Villarreal.
Avalos argued three issues in his appeal, including that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the jury’s rejection of his self-defense claim; that he received ineffective assistance of counsel; and “cumulative errors made by trial counsel and the trial court denied … his right to a fair trial.”
A Hidalgo County grand jury indicted Avalos in July 2018 for killing Villarreal, who lived four houses away from Avalos, on April 22, 2018.
“He pleaded not guilty and expressed to the trial court his desire to represent himself at trial. The trial court reluctantly agreed and appointed counsel to assist him,” the ruling states.
Evidence during the trial included videos of the altercation between Avalos and Villarreal captured by the home security cameras of two neighbors.
“In one of the videos, Avalos can be seen pulling into his driveway and, shortly after, he is standing in front of his house gesturing aggressively in the direction of Villarreal. Avalos then goes inside the house and returns a few minutes later and walks into the street in front of his house, holds a knife in the air in the direction of Villarreal, and flips the blade open,” the ruling says.
The man then closes the knife, places it in his pocket and walks around in his yard gesturing with his hands and arms at Villarreal.
“Avalos then appears to see Villarreal running towards him, stands in a fighting position with his hands down near his legs, and pulls the knife out again but waits for Villarreal to attack him,” the ruling states.
That’s exactly what Villarreal did. He kicked Avalos in the stomach and knocked him to the ground.
“While Avalos is on the ground, Villarreal kicks him again, and after Villarreal makes impact with Avalos’ leg, Avalos swings forward with the knife and slashes across Villarreal’s right thigh, severing Villarreal’s femoral artery,” the ruling says.
The victim then retreated inside his home where he died.
Testimony from multiple neighbors during the trial also showed the jury that Avalos repeatedly threatened to kill his neighbors and tried to provoke them into fights over a period of several years.
One neighbor testified that he believed Avalos would try to provoke him into a fight on Avalos’ property so that Avalos could claim self defense.
As for Avalos’ self-defense claim, the 13th Court of Appeals ruled it doesn’t apply to this case because Avalos provoked the fatal altercation.
“As detailed above, Reyes’s home security system captured the altercation from start to finish, and the video shows Avalos gesturing towards Villarreal with his hands in the air in what appears to be an aggressive manner and urging him to come over,” the ruling states.
Then there are the previous encounters Avalos’ neighbors had with the man where he tried to incite fights.
“Mendiola testified about the way Avalos sought to incite fights with him by staying on his property and trying to get Mendiola to come over to him so that Avalos could claim self-defense, which is what Avalos can be seen doing in the video when gesturing at times with his hands towards Villarreal. Avalos’s behavior in the videos is strikingly similar to the description of his prior threats of death to neighbors,” the ruling says.
In regards to his ineffective assistance claim, the 13th Court of Appeals dedicated just three paragraphs in overruling the claim.
“Because Avalos voluntarily chose to represent himself, he cannot argue he received ineffective assistance of counsel,” the court ruled.
Lastly, Avalos’ cumulative error claim in regards to ineffective assistance was previously addressed by the judges and his last claim that the trial court made errors held no merit.
“We have already rejected Avalos’s ineffective assistance argument, and apart from the sentence just quoted, Avalos does not identify the alleged errors by the trial court he claims were harmful. Thus, to the extent Avalos complains of other errors by the trial court, we conclude that such an argument has been waived,” the ruling states.
Avalos is currently held in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Ellis Unit and is not eligible for parole until he is 80-years-old, which he will be in 2048, records show.
