By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
The story of Sandra De La Cruz and Clarissa Guerra is the story of two young women who were similar in many ways, but those stories diverged sharply when De La Cruz was shot to death, and Guerra was charged with killing her.
District Attorney Suzanne West told part of that story in her opening statement to jurors before the start of witness testimony in Guerra’s murder trial, which opened in state district court here this past week.
In her opening statement, West said she wanted to paint a picture “of what we think the evidence will show.”
West said she would present her case against Guerra in three segments, each connected to the March 7, 2021 murder of De La Cruz. West called those three segments “the backstory, the crime and the investigation.”
De La Cruz died, West told the jury, “of multiple gunshots wounds to the face and body.”
The district attorney called De La Cruz, who was 27 years old at the time of her murder, “a desperate girl.”
“You’ll hear about the life she was living, how her life and the defendant’s life converged and separated,” West said.
She told the jury they would hear details of De La Cruz’s “brutal, brutal death.”
“She was shot six times. She was shot in the face, chest, arms and rear,” West said.
West said the jury would also hear the defendant, Guerra, talking to people in her world. She said the jury would see and hear several conversations between Guerra and persons in jail.
“These are two ladies who live in much the same world . . . and up to that day (of the murder), their lives were similar,” West said.
On March 7, 2021, West said, Guerra wanted to distinguish herself by brutally murdering De La Cruz.
“I feel confident when you see the evidence, you will find the defendant guilty,” West told the jury.
Del Rio attorney Michael J. Bagley, who is representing Guerra, elected not to give an opening statement.
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