By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A jury in state district court Thursday sentenced Freddy Villanueva to 40 years in prison after finding him guilty of murder in the death of Del Rioan Manuel Sanchez.
The jury, comprised of three women and nine men, deliberated just over two hours Thursday afternoon before returning the guilty verdict and spent slightly more than an hour behind closed doors before handing down the 40-year sentence.
The sentence marks the resolution of the case, which began on the morning of March 24, 2019, when Mario Aguirre discovered a car containing Sanchez’s body parked behind his tire shop on Las Vacas Street in far south Del Rio.
Four men were eventually charged with murder and tampering with evidence in the case – Villanueva, Mario Rivera-Vasquez, Kelvin Brown and Lennox Matthews.
The story that emerged during the Del Rio Police Department’s investigation of the case was that the four men, after an evening of drinking, went to Villanueva’s mother’s house on Farley Lane. Several other adults, including Sanchez, and several children were at the house as well.
Villanueva’s mother apparently was told that Sanchez was a registered sex offender, and she told her son Freddy she no longer wanted Sanchez on her property. Freddy Villanueva, according to several witnesses, then walked over to Sanchez and punched him in the face. Sanchez fell to the ground, and Rivera-Vasquez and Brown began punching and kicking him.
The four men then left the property, but returned later, when Villanueva’s mother called her son and reportedly asked him to remove Sanchez from her property. Rivera-Vasquez and at least one of the other men stuffed Sanchez into the backseat area of his own car. Then Rivera-Vasquez drove Sanchez’s car to the tire shop and abandoned it.
The medical examiner testified Sanchez died of “positional asphyxiation” from the manner in which he was placed into his car.
Cases against Matthews, Brown and Rivera-Vasquez have all been resolved.
Rivera-Vasquez pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Brown was sentenced to seven years on manslaughter, and Matthews was sentenced to three years for tampering with evidence.
Villanueva was tried on murder and tampering with evidence in October, but the jury in that trial could not reach a verdict on the murder charge, and the judge ordered a mistrial. That jury, however, found Villanueva guilty of tampering with evidence, and the judge later sentenced him to 10 years on that guilty verdict. That 10-year sentence will run concurrently with the 40-year sentence handed down Thursday.
Court began Thursday with closing arguments from state’s attorney Josh Somers, a member of the Texas Attorney General’s Office, who was assisting District Attorney Suzanne West with the case and from San Antonio attorney Sylvia Cavazos, who represented Villanueva.
Cavazos told the jury that “at most, Freddy Villanueva is guilty of assault,” saying that no witness testified Villanueva had done more than deliver the first punch.
“Freddy Villanueva is not a killer,” Cavazos said and asked the jury to find him not guilty on the murder charge.
West, who gave the final closing argument, told the jury, “Freddy Villanueva is the beginning and end of this horrible night.”
“Freddy Villanueva started this incident, and Manuel Sanchez never stood on his own two feet again after Freddy Villanueva punched him,” West added.
She asked the jury to find Villanueva guilty of murder.
The jury deliberated from just before 11 a.m. until about 1 p.m. Thursday before returning the guilty verdict.
The trial moved immediately to the sentencing phase, with Cavazos calling Villanueva’s mother, Julie Villanueva, to the stand to testify for her son. Cavazos also called Villanueva to testify on his own behalf.
After the testimony and closing statements from the attorneys, the jury deliberated for just over an hour before returning the sentence requested by the prosecutors – 40 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Senior District Judge Sid L. Harle, who had presided over the trial, ordered the imposition of the sentence, dismissed the jury with thanks and remanded Villanueva to the custody of the Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies in the courtroom immediately handcuffed Villanueva and escorted him to a transport vehicle waiting at the rear of the judicial center.
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