By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
The trial of a Del Rio woman accused of murdering another Del Rio woman in a cemetery shooting has been postponed until at least September, court records show.
Clarissa Guadalupe Guerra, 25, was scheduled to go on trial July 18 for the March 7, 2021 murder of Sandra De La Cruz.
Earlier this month, 83rd Judicial District Judge Robert E. Cadena, in whose court the trial is scheduled, granted a request from Guerra’s attorney, Mike Bagley, who had asked for more time to prepare for a jury trial and to review the evidence in the case, according to motions on file in the case.
Bagley also cited conflicts with cases set for sentencing in federal court and a death in the family.
Cadena, in granting the request, ordered the case “will be placed on court’s criminal docket call in September 2022 to determine a new trial date.”
De La Cruz, who was 27 years old when she was killed, was found shot to death on a road inside the San Felipe Cemetery, an historic burial site off Brodbent Avenue in south Del Rio.
Guerra was indicted in May 2021 for the offense of murder, a first-degree felony. The indictment, on file in state district court here, reads in part that “. . . on or about the 7th day of March, 2021 . . . Clarissa Guerra . . . did . . . intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual, namely Sandra De La Cruz, by discharging a firearm into the body of Sandra De La Cruz.”
A co-defendant in the case, Ernesto Olguin, also of Del Rio, was also arrested and charged with murder in the case.
In a criminal complaint filed in the case against Guerra, VVSO Lt. Gina Garcia, who heads the sheriff’s office criminal investigations division and who is the lead investigator in the case, wrote that in an interview with Olguin following his arrest, “Olguin confessed that on Sunday, March 7, 2021, at approximately 0700 hours (7 a.m.), he learned from Clarissa Guerra . . . that there was a plan to kill Sandra De La Cruz.”
Olguin further told the investigator he drove himself, Guerra and De La Cruz to the cemetery.
“Olguin stated Guerra and De La Cruz exited the vehicle and stood at the rear of the vehicle. Olguin stated Guerra proceeded to shoot (De La Cruz) multiple times with a revolver. Olguin stated both Guerra and him fled the scene and left (De La Cruz) behind,” Garcia wrote.
A superseding indictment in the case was filed in July 2021, charging Guerra with murder and with felony tampering with evidence for allegedly “altering, destroying or concealing” De La Cruz’s cell phone.
Garcia in an affidavit for a search warrant related to evidence in the case noted she interviewed Guerra on March 12, 2021, and during the interview said Guerra “confessed to being at the cemetery when Sandra (De La Cruz) was killed, disposing of evidence and Sandra’s property.”
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