Avoiding second mistrial, jurors find Weslaco man guilty in 2018 murder

EDINBURG — After narrowly avoiding a second mistrial, prosecutors on Friday secured a guilty verdict against a 31-year-old Weslaco man who shot and killed his ex-lover’s little brother six years ago.

The jury, which deliberated for approximately nine hours over two days, found Victor Lee Alfaro guilty of shooting and killing 21-year-old Reynaldo Reyes Jr. on May 4, 2016.

However, on Friday 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 Thursday, this left only 11 jurors available instead of 12.

The choice to continue with 11 jurors was Alfaro’s and his alone.

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.

His first mistrial in 2018 was caused because that jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision following 13 hours of deliberation.

Prosecutors Jay Garza and Gabriella Guerena presented the state’s case over three days this week, with jurors seeing 181 exhibits and hearing testimony from 15 witnesses.

During those three days, jurors heard Alfaro smoked methamphetamine prior to shooting Reyes three times before fleeing.

The state walked the jury through the crime scene and the evidence collected.

However, when the defense presented its only witness on Friday morning, the jury heard how the state’s key eye witness in the case — 32-year-old Nancy Arlene Lopez — lied on the stand.

Lopez, who was Alfaro’s lover, is a convicted felon serving 10 years in federal prison for attempting to smuggle nearly 40 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in candles into the United States through Progreso. She has a long criminal history.

She is also Reyes’ older sister and the only other person inside the Edinburg apartment she shared with her little brother and Alfaro.

Lopez told jurors that in December 2016 she visited Alfaro in the county jail where he confessed to smoking methamphetamine before shooting Reyes.

Alfaro’s defense attorneys proved she never visited the jail by showing the jury visitation logs that did not list her name.

This is the only confession in the case.

Defense attorneys were also able to point out numerous inconsistencies in her testimony.

However, during closing arguments, Garza, the prosecutor, explained to the jury that Lopez was a liar and that there were inconsistencies in her testimony, but that the big picture parts of her story to police never changed.

He also pointed out that unlike Alfaro, Lopez stayed at the scene of the shooting, cooperated with police and submitted to various searches and tests.

Lopez’s testimony was extremely important because prosecutors lacked physical evidence tying Alfaro to the gun used in the shooting and evidence placing him at the scene.

The only other witness able to place Alfaro at the scene was Lopez’s downstairs neighbor, Mirna Light, who testified she saw Alfaro as he left the apartment after hearing gunshots.

As for the gun, Lopez said she bought it for Alfaro for protection after people robbed her of people in the country illegally that she was harboring inside her apartment.

The other witness tying Alfaro to the gun is Jessica Reyes, a sibling to Lopez and Reyes.

She told the jury how her sister duped her into buying the gun. Lopez could not buy one because she was already a convicted felon at that point. Jessica Reyes testified that Alfaro took that gun everywhere with him.

Alfaro has elected to be sentenced by the jury.

The punishment phase is scheduled for Monday morning.

Editor’s note: This story was updated with the full version.