A 31-year-old man who pleaded guilty earlier this month to shooting and killing a Mercedes man in 2018 following a night of drinking and arguing over roosters has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Adrian Garcia appeared Wednesday before 357th state District Judge Juan Magallanes who sentenced him to four decades to a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility.
Garcia admitted to fatally shooting Ezequiel Garza with a rifle on Aug. 18, 2018.
“It was a particularly egregious violent act in that the evidence showed that the victim was attempting to leave the scene when he was shot,” Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz said Thursday, in a press release.
At the time, former Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio told the newspaper that Garcia and Garza were drinking beer at a residence located at 24811 Bass Blvd. at around 5:30 p.m.
Lucio had said the men were fixing the roof of the residence and drank along with the owner, who went inside the house at 11 p.m.
Around 5 a.m., the owner heard gunshots and sent another worker to check, which is when Garza was found in his vehicle with a gunshot wound to his chest.
According to Lucio, Garza and Garcia had been discussing cock fighting and got into an argument over whose rooster was better.
Garcia asked Garza for money for the hypothetical cock fight and then shot him, and a witness confirmed to investigators that Garcia had shot Garza.
Authorities said Garcia fled and tried to hide the .22 rifle used in the shooting, but he was eventually found in the neighborhood and Lucio said he gave a full confession and led investigators to the weapon.
