EDINBURG — A little over one year following the vigilante killing of their 42-year-old stepfather, the Pharr brothers accused of his beating death appeared in court Wednesday morning.
And Christian Treviño, 18, walked into court smiling.
His attorney, Carlos Garcia, asked state District Judge Fernando Mancias for additional time as there was still evidence being entered and mentioned that Christian’s brother, Alejandro Santos, 19, had a hearing near the end of March.
Garcia suggested it would be best to wait until after Alejandro’s hearing to decide what to do next with the case, which Mancias agreed with.
Mancias then asked Christian how he was doing and if he had spoken to his brother.
Alejandro had a hearing that same morning in a different courtroom, and Christian said he had spoken to him before appearing in court and mentioned that Alejandro was being held in the Brooks County Jail.
Christian and Alejandro are charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and engaging in organized criminal activity, though Christian is facing a capital murder charge as he allegedly dealt the final blow to Gabriel Quintanilla.
On Jan. 20 last year, Quintanilla’s body was discovered in a field near McColl and Whalen roads in McAllen.
After police identified him, they went to notify his mother at her residence. She told them that she had dropped him off the day before his death in the 1200 block of East Moore Road, which is where the mother of his children lived.
Police spoke to the Treviño brothers’ mother who informed them that her two sons had assaulted Quintanilla after they learned he had been accused of molesting their 9-year-old half-sister.
According to the probable cause affidavit, she then told Quintanilla to leave the residence and he left on foot.
A police interview with Alejandro revealed that Christian chased after Quintanilla to an apartment complex on Linden and Coyote streets, where Christian beat Quintanilla with brass knuckles, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Alejandro, his friend Juan Eduardo Melendez, 19, who is also facing a capital murder charge, and an unidentified male juvenile, drove in Melendez’s red Dodge Charger to Christian’s location.
The juvenile told police that Alejandro and Melendez both jumped out of the vehicle upon arrival and joined Christian in the beating, according to the affidavit.
The four then left for Melendez’s home and boarded a white Ford F-150 and drove back to the brothers’ home where Alejandro was dropped off.
The affidavit states that Christian picked up some clothes while at the home.
Christian, Melendez and the juvenile left the residence and eventually found Quintanilla walking south on Veterans Boulevard where they assaulted him once more.
This is when Quintanilla was rendered unconscious and placed into the truck’s bed.
The juvenile told investigators that he could hear him moaning in pain and “snoring very loud,” the affidavit stated.
Once at the open field where Quintanilla’s body would eventually be found, Christian considered assaulting his stepfather once more with a wheel that was inside the truck but the juvenile intervened, the affidavit states.
Instead, Christian took a watch from Quintanilla that he had given to him as a gift, police say.
After leaving Quintanilla, the three returned to Melendez’s residence. He started a fire to burn the clothes all three wore during the alleged assaults and they had drinks, according to the affidavit.
Nearly a week after, Pharr police held a press conference to address the alleged murder and the victim’s history where it was revealed he had a warrant for his arrest for an unrelated 2019 charge of continuous sexual assault that, according to investigators, occurred for several years.
Melendez was released from jail in August of that same year on $362,000 in bonds.
As for the Christian and Alejandro, they both remain jailed on $150,000 in bonds.
All three have pleaded not guilty.
To see more, view Monitor photojournalist Joel Martinez’s full photo gallery here:
Photo Gallery: A year later, case against Pharr brothers in vigilante murder inches forward
