EDINBURG – Prosecutors on Wednesday presented evidence to the jury that a man accused of shooting four people at a Palmview H-E-B in 2016 faced multiple write-ups and was on the verge of being fired 12 days before the shooting.
The testimony came from Carlos Garcia, who was in charge of the overnight team at the grocery store at Goodwin Road and U.S. Expressway 83, on the sixth day of testimony in the trial of 31-year-old Mission resident Raul Lopez.
Lopez is charged with murder, three counts of attempted murder, three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and a count of attempted capital murder of multiple persons.
The defense is not contesting that Lopez shot and killed 48-year-old Mario Pulido at approximately 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 28, 2016, and shot and injured Rafael Martinez, then 37, Frailan Garza, then 51, and Billy Joe Martinez, then 33.
Prosecutors allege Lopez walked up to a window outside of the breakroom the men were eating lunch in and fired at least 15 rounds from a 9mm Desert Eagle handgun.
Lopez has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is pursuing an insanity defense.
On Tuesday, a court-appointed forensic psychiatrist told the jury Lopez suffers from schizophrenia and that he did not understand what he did that night was wrong because voices the man heard told him he needed to shoot to protect his family.
On Wednesday, Garcia, the H-E-B manager, testified about Lopez’s problems at H-E-B, which were documented in his personnel file.
Those write-ups included complaints about work assignments and being denied holidays he wanted off.
Garcia testified that Lopez would not follow directions and worked slower than required when he was denied holidays.
The overnight manager also said Lopez violated H-E-B’s strict no overtime policy on occasion.
His personnel file reflected numerous absences and call-ins, which rose to the point where Lopez was close to being referred for termination.
His last documented absence was Nov. 16, 2016, Garcia said.
One more absence and Garcia told jurors Lopez would have been referred to the manager’s supervisor and human resources for termination for violating H-E-B’s attendance policies.
On Thursday morning, the jury is scheduled to hear from Johanna Torres-Santiago, a psychiatrist who works for Tropical Texas Behavioral Health and provides services to people being held at the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center.
She diagnosed Lopez with a panic disorder.
However, though she prescribed him an antipsychotic medication she did not diagnose him with schizophrenia.
Instead, she told attorneys and the judge outside the presence of the jury, that she was exploring whether Lopez had an unspecified psychosis and was lying about his symptoms for personal gain.
She said Lopez did not meet all the clinical guidelines for a schizophrenia diagnosis, which contradicts Tomas A. Gonzalez’s medical opinion that he indeed suffers from schizophrenia.
Gonzalez is the court-appointed medical expert.
Torres came to her opinion through three separate meetings with Lopez, two of which were over video-conferencing, that lasted a total of 44 minutes in all.
She said she also included the observations of jail nurses and detention officers in coming to her conclusions.
Gonzalez met with Lopez on three occasions and reviewed evidence in the case such as his interrogation video and the 9-1-1 call, as well as infirmary records, and interviewed Lopez’s ex-wife.
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Palmview H-E-B ‘mass shooting’ trial may come down to a battle of the experts
