A 31-year-old man who was on the run for nearly eight years pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to attempted murder for a 2012 shooting during a botched robbery.
In a plea deal, Eddy Abraham Barbosa Olivares, a Mexican citizen, plead guilty to the lesser charge of attempted murder and was sentenced to three years in prison with 401 days of credit for the time he’s spent in the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center.
He had initially been indicted on a charge of attempted capital murder because the shooting occurred during the course of a robbery attempt.
He appeared via videoconferencing in front of 430th state District Judge Israel Ramon Jr., who accepted the guilty plea and handed down the sentence.
In 2012, Olivares and his accomplice, Jorge Rios Barron, entered Perez Groceries in rural Weslaco just before 10 p.m. in an attempt to rob it.
The store’s owner, Carmen Polanco Perez, who was 71 at the time, was ready to close his business for the day when Olivares and Barron entered the store shouting that it was a robbery and ordered Perez to the ground, according to the affidavit.
Perez was shot at and injured but retaliated by grabbing his gun and firing back, striking Barron as he and Olivares fled the scene.
An eyewitness observed Olivares and Barron run out of the store when Barron was struck. The witness then transported the two to Knapp Medical Center, the affidavit said.
Barron was arrested in March 2012 and is currently serving a 12-year sentence for aggravated robbery and was denied parole in February of last year due to the violent nature of the offense.
Olivares was arrested in December after turning himself in and is currently being held in the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center on a $150,000 bond.
He will be transferred to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and will likely be deported after finishing his sentence because he is not a U.S. citizen.
