Nearly four years after a mistrial, a 31-year-old Weslaco man is set to stand trial for second time over allegations that he shot and killed a lover’s younger brother.
Victor Lee Alfaro is charged with fatally shooting 21-year-old Reynaldo Reyes Jr. on May 4, 2016, in the Edinburg apartment he shared with his sister, Nancy Lopez.
The case first went to trial in 2018, but ended in mistrial after the jury, which deliberated for 13 hours, could not reach a unanimous decision.
In the first trial, jurors sent notes to state District Judge Mario Ramirez Jr. indicating that Lopez’s testimony sowed doubt in some of the juror’s minds.
She testified that Alfaro loaded a 9mm handgun in front of while in her bedroom.
Lopez claimed that shortly after he left her room, multiple gunshots rang out from Reyes’ room.
She told jurors Alfaro apologized, gave her the weapon and ran from the apartment in her car.
Defense attorney O. Rene Flores, however, questioned her account, pointing out inconsistencies in her version of events.
Newspaper archives indicate that physical evidence linking Alfaro to the crime was lacking.
Investigators did not find fingerprints on the gun or the weapon’s magazine, and police did not find DNA on his clothes.
Prosecutors, however, emphasized the police discovered gunshot residue on his clothing while investigators found only a small particle of residue on his hands.
At the time, defense attorneys suggested that police who handcuffed Alfaro after his arrest could have deposited that small particle while Lopez told jurors that Alfaro wore gloves while handling the gun.
Alfaro has remained in the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center since his initial arrest and since the initial mistrial.
