A 29-year-old San Juan man received a lengthy prison sentence Thursday after a jury found him guilty of killing a woman by punching her and running her over with a vehicle in 2017.
District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez Jr. said via text that a jury sentenced Lamar Lawson to 65 years in prison for the Nov. 28, 2017, death of 51-year-old Sonya Mynette De La Cruz.
Lawson, who has been held at the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center on a $700,000 bond since Nov. 30, 2017, went to trial March 28 and was found guilty of murder on Tuesday.
The jury began deliberating Lawson’s fate Wednesday afternoon and reached its verdict at approximately 4:30 p.m. the following day.
De La Cruz’s body was found about 5:23 p.m. on the day of her death near the 600 block of W. Beech Avenue in McAllen.
At the time, McAllen police said in a probable cause affidavit that she died from blunt force trauma to the head caused by being punched in the face and from being run over by a vehicle.
Detectives found surveillance video from homes in the area that sent them to a nearby hotel where De La Cruz was picked up by a driver in a Chevrolet Equinox, according to the affidavit.
“The vehicle can be seen with additional vehicle accessories that made it easier for police to identify,” the affidavit stated.
McAllen police later determined Lawson was the driver and said he confessed to “having caused the victim’s injury that led to her death.”
