A jury handed down a life sentence Wednesday afternoon for Adan Chavez for the murder of 23-year-old Jorge Gonzales.
The punishment phase for Chavez’s murder trial wrapped up with that verdict Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, it took a jury of seven men and five women an hour and 10 minutes to find Chavez guilty of murder.
Chavez, 25, was indicted for the Oct. 2, 2022, shooting of Gonzales in the parking lot of a Dollar Saver convenience store in the 700 block of Central Freeway, court documents show.
Wichita County Assistant Public Defender Joe Cole, told jurors in his closing statement that the state had presented no hard evidence of Chavez’s guilt but relied on accounts provided by witnesses to police.
Cole said the prosecution presented no fingerprints, security footage, cell phone data or gunshot residue that proved Chavez committed the murder. He said some witnesses who were in cars at the time and location of the shooting could not really see what happened, and other witnesses lied.
Wichita County Assistant District Attorney Chelsea Carlton laid out a scenario in which Chavez had feuded with Gonzales and his brothers throughout the day and had fired shots into their home before confronting Gonzales in the parking lot that afternoon.
She said witnesses saw Chavez take a rifle from the bed of a pickup and shoot Gonzales eight times.
“The defendant is guilty,” she said. “He shot him over and over and over again — three times in the back.
The trial was delayed Wednesday morning to await the arrival of a final witness. A visibly irritated 78th District Court Judge Meredith Kennedy scolded attorneys on both sides for repeated delays in the trial.
“There’s no reason for this trial to take 15 days,” she said.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: UPDATED: Jury returns verdict in Chavez murder trial
Reporting by Lynn Walker, Wichita Falls Times Record News / Wichita Falls Times Record News
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