EDINBURG — A state district judge sentenced a 31-year-old Mission man convicted of a 2016 mass shooting at a Palmview H-E-B to two life sentences and a combined 90 years in prison on a slew of other charges after hearing from the victims and their family Tuesday.
Raul Lopez, who showed no emotion during sentencing, was convicted by jury on March 29 on a charge of murder, a count of attempted capital murder, three counts of attempted murder and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The sentences will run concurrently.
Jurors rejected an insanity defense from Lopez who never challenged that he shot 19 times from a Desert Eagle through a window at 3:30 a.m. on Nov. 28, 2016 into the breakroom of the grocery store at Goodwin Road and U.S. Expressway 83, where overnight workers were eating lunch.
Lopez killed 48-year-old Mario Pulido, who was shot nine times, and shot and injured Billy Joe Martinez, then 33, Rafael Martinez, then 37, and Frailan Garza, then 51.
Lopez had brought an insanity defense and two court-appointed experts testified that he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.
Testimony had shown that Lopez heard voices and was so paranoid of either the government or drug cartels that he only communicated with his family by writing on pieces of paper, which he would later burn.
His symptoms became more severe in the lead-up to the shooting.
However, jurors also heard evidence that he called 911 on himself and confessed, and the efforts he made to ditch the gun after the shooting.
Lopez’s trial lasted two weeks and included 23 witnesses and 348 exhibits. The jurors convicted him after a little more than 10 hours of work.
On Tuesday, as state District Judge Fernando Mancias was sentencing Lopez, the defendant’s family sat behind him and cried, while Pulido’s family reacted with joy, hugging each other as well as embracing prosecutors Maggie Hinojosa and Juan Bazan once outside the courtroom.
Rafael Martinez and Billy Joe Martinez also sat behind the Pulido family during the sentencing, along with Denise Lozano, who applied first aid to both men that night, likely saving their lives.
In handing down the sentence, Mancias told Lopez he learned a lot about mental illness during the trial and said that people who suffer from schizophrenia should not be stigmatized.
The judge also said he wished he were able to turn back time for Lopez so that he could get the treatment he needed to prevent that fatal outburst of violence.
However, Mancias noted testimony during the trial that indicated Lopez would suffer from paranoid schizophrenia for the rest of his life and that he would likely remain a danger to society with a likely potential to continue harming other people in the future.
Prior to the sentencing, the judge heard from five witnesses, including Rafael Martinez and Billy Joe Martinez who testified about the extensive gunshot wounds they sustained and how those wounds still cause them pain.
Even Tuesday, Rafael Martinez said one of his old wounds was hurting because of the change in weather.
The court also heard from Lozano, who told the judge how at the time of the shooting, she was pursuing a career in EMS, which she stopped chasing after the shooting due to the trauma she underwent that night.
Lozano placed a tourniquet on Rafael Martinez’s arm. He had been shot six times.
She also crawled into the breakroom that night and checked Mario Pulido for a pulse, which he didn’t have.
After that, Lozano crawled to Billy Joe Martinez, who had been shot twice, and was on his back choking on his blood. She said Tuesday that she placed her fingers in his mouth and turned him on his side so he wouldn’t choke to death.
All the while, Lozano was on the phone with 911.
The court also heard from Patricia Pulido, Mario Pulido’s wife of 26 years.
She told Mancias, the judge, how she met her husband in Reynosa a couple years prior to marriage and that they then moved to McAllen where they would have four children together.
Patricia Pulido said her husband’s death changed her family’s lives and that her children suffered greatly from his death.
Mario Pulido was the family’s sole provider, and Patricia Pulido, who was a stay-at-home mother, ended up having to create a business.
She also said Lopez never apologized and that she believes he has shown no remorse.
Her daughter, Isla Itzel Garza-Pulido, also gave similar testimony.
After the sentencing, she addressed Lopez by giving a victim impact statement.
“I’m Mario’s oldest daughter and I had the privilege of being his daughter for 25 years,” she said in Spanish. “That was my age when you took him from me, from this life.”
She told Lopez he has caused anger, pain, suffering and trauma that also affected her siblings and mother.
“I had 25 years with wonderful moments, but to my siblings, my mom, you took us and completely changed our lives, and I hope that until the day you live in this world, you know that,” she said. “I ask for the maximum sentence and about what happened today, I believe, I respect mental health, I do.”
She said her father’s death took a part of her family’s heart.
“I think about it and it’s not only the trauma that you caused to us, but also the trauma to the other people who were affected, to the community where you lived and to your family,” she said. “Hopefully, you can find peace in yourself, and you can live each day to know what you did.”
Lopez has a right to appeal and Mancias said he would appoint appellate attorneys.
Monitor staff writers Emily D’Gyves and Naxiely Lopez-Puente contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with the full version at 6:07 p.m.
