By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Oscar Gonzalez’s 2018 murder of Del Rioan Sabrina Cervantes left the judge in the case “no other choice” than a life sentence after he heard from witnesses and reviewed evidence in the case.
State District Judge Sid Harle, presiding judge of the 4th Administrative Judicial Region, presided over the sentencing hearing, held in 63rd Judicial District Court on Monday.
In passing his sentence, Harle told Gonzalez, “I have reviewed the evidence. . . and I see no other choice than to sentence you to life on counts two and three (murder and arson).”
During the hearing, Harle heard testimony from witnesses presented by Assistant District Attorney Jessica Shawver-Savino and from a single witness proffered by Gonzalez’s appointed defense attorney, Daniel De La Garza of San Antonio.
Members of Cervantes’ family, including her ex-husband, Alex Cervantes, filed into the second-floor courtroom of the county judicial center in downtown Del Rio before the start of the hearing. The family members filled more than two rows in the courtroom gallery.
At the start of the hearing, Harle asked De La Garza and Shawver-Savino if they were ready to proceed, and both indicated they were.
Shawver-Savino first called Dr. Thomas Mitchell, a trauma care surgeon who had treated Cervantes after she was taken from Del Rio to the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center in San Antonio.
Shawver-Savino showed Mitchell a series of photos taken of Cervantes while she was in medical care and asked the doctor to describe her condition.
Mitchell testified Cervantes had suffered burn injuries to more than 90 percent of her body and noted her respiratory system had been severely damaged as well.
The injuries, Mitchell said, “were essentially non-survivable” with “a very grim prognosis.”
Mitchell said after “extensive conversations” with members of Cervantes’ family, the decision was made to transfer Cervantes to end-of-life comfort care.
Shawver-Savino next called two Del Rio Police Department employees to testify.
Dan Riley, DRPD evidence technician, testified about burned hair and clothing he had collected from a location near the murder scene, and DRPD Detective Oscar Marco Gonzalez (no relation to the defendant), testified about leading the case since the retirement of the original case officer, Gorge Mayorga.
Detective Gonzalez testified about a key piece of evidence in the case: a snippet of home surveillance video from a house across the street from the scene of the murder.
Shawver-Savino asked the detective to describe, nearly minute-by-minute, what the video had recorded. He describe how Oscar Gonzalez arrived near the home at 100 Ridgewood, enters the home and the aftermath including Cervantes coming out of the front door of the house, engulfed in flames. He also described the video showing Gonzalez exiting the residence just behind her. Cervantes begins rolling on the ground in an effort to put out the fire.
Detective Gonzalez continued to narrate, saying Gonzalez can be seen re-entering the house and walking back outside. Gonzalez then walks over to Cervantes, still lying prone in the front yard, and sprays her with what police believe was some type of accelerant.
Gonzalez then walks deliberately back into the residence and a few minutes later, smoke and fire can be seen coming from the house.
First responders arrive a short time later, a DRPD officer who grabbed an extinguisher from his patrol unit and attempted to put out the flames.
Shawver-Savino called Linda Aldaña, Cervantes’ mother, to the stand.
Aldaña testified about her daughter’s life and work, saying Cervantes worked as a nurse at the La Vida Serena Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Del Rio.
Aldaña said her daughter was separated from her husband, Alex Cervantes, when she met Gonzalez. Aldaña claimed Gonzalez was physically abusive to Cervantes and “made her not talk to” family members.
Shawver-Savino next called Deputy U.S. Marshal Mark Martinez to testify.
Martinez told the court about receiving the arrest warrant for Gonzalez in August 2018. He testified Gonzalez was captured in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico on Oct. 21, 2021 and extradited to the United States on Nov. 1, 2022.
Shawver-Savino called Cervantes’ ex-husband, Alex Cervantes, to testify.
Alex Cervantes said he had been divorced from Sabrina Cervantes less than 30 days before her murder.
He said that after his ex-wife began a relationship with Gonzalez she began to change, “behaving very recklessly,” and doing things that could have jeopardized her nursing career. He said he believed Gonzalez was the catalyst for the changes in his ex-wife’s behavior.
Cervantes called his ex-wife “an excellent mom and a nurse” and said her legacy will live on, as the county women’s shelter has been named in her memory.
“She wanted to help people. Like every human being, she was flawed, but she really wanted to help people. That’s who she was, a genuinely quality human being,” Cervantes told the judge.
After Shawver-Savino had rested her case, De La Garza called only one witness, Gonzalez’s ex-wife, Adriana Yanez.
In response to questions from De La Garza, Yanez testified she had been married to Gonzalez for nine years and 10 months. She said he had seemed a normal, hardworking man, but told the court she left the relationship after one of her daughters made an outcry that Gonzalez had sexually assaulted her. That incident, Yanez testified, was investigated by law enforcement and eventually dismissed by the previous district attorney here.
Harle imposed his sentence after hearing from all the witnesses.
—
Contact the author at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
