By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
It was going to be an unusual jury trial – District Attorney Suzanne West told jurors that right from the start.
West spoke to the jury of three men and nine women several times over the course of the two days they spent in the courtroom for the trial of Elisa Wesley Alvarez – during the jury selection process, during her opening statement and in her closing statement. That jury later sentenced Alvarez to life in prison.
Alvarez’s counsel, Del Rio attorney Jacques De La Mota, also spoke to jurors during the jury selection process and during his opening and closing statements.
“This is an abnormal jury trial,” West told the jurors at the start of her opening statement.
“Normally, you’d spend a few days hearing evidence before you deliberated on a verdict of guilt or innocence,” she said.
The Alvarez trial would be different, West said, because Alvarez had already pleaded guilty to the murder charge she had been indicted, pleaded guilty to causing the death of 48-year-old Mirosalva Martinez. Instead, the jury would be determining Alvarez’s sentence.
Martinez was shot in the head and chest outside her Cienegas Terrace home on the morning of July 25, 2022, by 33-year-old Jose Ignacio Solis. During Alvarez’s trial, Solis testified against her, and, as part of a plea agreement with West’s office, also pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
West told the jury that instead of focusing on Alvarez’s guilt or innocence, she would focus on the victim.
“You are going to hear all about Mirosalva Martinez and her family, and what you’ll need to figure out is what number you will put on the (Alvarez’s) sentence for the loss of (Martinez’s) life,” West said.
She said jurors would hear about Martinez and her relationship with her husband, Jose Maximo Martinez Sr., and about her children and grandchildren.
West called Martinez’s murder “the family’s greatest heartbreak,” noting that Martinez was shot and killed on the day of her youngest daughter’s 14th birthday. While the Martinez family was planning a birthday celebration for the girl, West said, Alvarez spent that same time planning a murder.
West told jurors they would hear that in the year prior to the murder, Martinez’s husband had started an affair with Alvarez and that over the course of that year, Alvarez grew “increasingly jealous and possessive.”
When Martinez’s husband began to withdraw from his relationship with Alvarez, telling her he would never leave his wife, Alvarez began to realize “there was only one thing between her and the man she wanted,” West said.
West spoke about how Alvarez and Solis knew each other and told the jury that Solis “had pleaded guilty to murder in exchange for testimony about what he did.” She reviewed how Solis drove to the Martinez home, shot Martinez, drove to Alvarez’s south Del Rio home to drop off the gun, then fled to Mexico where Alvarez had instructed him to leave the car he was driving.
At the end of her opening statement, West asked the jury to “impose a sentence that somehow sends a message that will make the community a little safer in the future.”
De La Mota in his opening statement told jurors it would be their responsibility “to parse the testimony, compare and evaluate that testimony and fashion a sentence that is fair and just.”
“She’s remorseful, and she has accepted responsibility for her actions,” De La Mota said of his client.
He questioned Solis’ motives and said there was no proof that Alvarez had ever paid Solis to kill Martinez, despite Solis’ claim that Alvarez said she would buy him a lot and a house in Ciudad Acuña, Coah., Mexico.
De La Mota asked jurors to consider Solis’ motivation, then to weigh all the facts carefully, then ended his opening statement by again asking jurors to arrive at a “fair and just” sentence.
Both West and De La Mota echoed what they had said in their opening statements in their closing statements to the jury.
Typically, the district attorney addresses the jury first, then the defense attorney speaks, and the district attorney speaks last. West said she wished to combine both her statements in one final statement, so De La Mota was the first to give his closing statement.
Once again, De La Mota deflected blame onto Solis, the triggerman.
He characterized Solis as a violent criminal who “manipulated and controlled” the situation to place the lion’s share of the blame onto Alvarez.
De La Mota reminded jurors that Alvarez had accepted responsibility for her actions and asked jurors to consider the real level of her involvement in the entire situation.
Finally, De La Mota once again asked jurors to consider “a fair and just and reasonable sentence.”
West in her closing said there was no question Alvarez was guilty of murder; she had entered a plea admitting to her responsibility for the killing.
West said even though Alvarez might be in prison, she will still be able to see videos and photos of her grandchildren graduate from high school, get married and have children of their own and otherwise participate in their lives.
“I want you to make sure that participation happens from behind bars,” West told the jury.
She urged the jury to recommend a sentence as long as they felt was appropriate.
“How many years is it worth for everything the Martinez family lost?” West asked, holding up a color portrait of Mirosalva Martinez for the jurors.
West also showed the jury a photo of the Martinez home and the pistol Solis used to end Martinez’s life.
“This little gun ended Mirosalva Martinez’s life in about 30 minutes, all because Elisa Alvarez wanted what Mirosalva Martinez had. Elisa Alvarez is not a woman who needs to be out free. . . Please come back with a just sentence,” West finished.
The jury took less than an hour before recommending the life sentence.
After the trial, West issued the following statement to the 830 Times:
“The jury sentenced this murderer to the maximum sentence – life and $10,000. Justice has prevailed thanks to the tireless efforts of our local law enforcement team, which included the Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Homeland Security and the district attorney’s office.
“Our DA staff, including Victim’s Advocate Debbie Garcia and Border Prosecution Unit (BPU) Investigator Michelle Salinas, were integral in coordinating the many moving pieces that culminated in this verdict. Assistant District Attorney Jessica Shawver-Savino and BPU Investigator Roger Dixon assisted as well.
“Our community lost a beloved mother in this tragedy, and it is my fervent hope that the process and the outcome has brought some closure to this close-knit loving family and that eventually they can prosper in peace,” West said.
—
Contact the author at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
