By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
District Attorney Suzanne West and Del Rio attorney Sostenes Mireles gave opening statements
Wednesday morning in the murder trial of Daniel Lopez, underway this week in state district
court here.
The 83rd Judicial District Judge Robert E. Cadena welcomed jurors back to the second-floor
courtroom in the Val Verde County Judicial Center about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, then recognized
West, who gave the first opening statement to the jury.
West told the five men and seven women on the jury the purpose of opening statements is to give
the attorneys on both sides a chance to talk about what they believe the evidence will show.
“What I’m going to lay out for you is what I would say is absolutely a tragedy. . . What the
evidence will show you is that a 21-year-old boy was shot and killed by the defendant, Daniel
Lopez,” West said.
She said Lopez is a 50-year-old man who lives with his father, does not have a job, drives his
father’s car and “hangs out with people who are 20 and 30 years old, who don’t have jobs, who
don’t do much of anything productive, and the evidence will show you that Daniel Lopez is right
in the middle of that crowd.”
West said jurors would hear “things about people’s lives that are not impressive,” and that she
was not hiding those facts. She urged jurors to listen to the testimony, compare it to the physical
evidence and decide what the truth is.
West spoke about Jose “Joey” Burgi, the 21-year-old victim of the crime and told jurors they
would learn more about him and his life and about the shooting, which occurred on Oct. 2, 2023,
and the events of the last day of his life.
West went over testimony she expected the jurors to hear from people in Burgi’s life, including
his mother, Raquel Burgi, and his girlfriend, Alondra Olivas. She spent some time speaking
about the text message interactions between Olivas and Burgi and the app the two had on their
respective phones to track each other’s movements and locations.
The district attorney also spoke about the testimony jurors would hear about the discovery of
Burgi’s body in the Sundance Estates area of the county north of Del Rio in the early morning of
Oct. 2.
West said the jury will also hear about what happened after Burgi’s death, including the fact that
Lopez texted “multiple people” after Burgi’s body was found, including Olivas. West said when
Olivas asked Lopez where Burgi was, he told her that he had dropped Burgi off near her home.
“What the defendant is trying to do is put questions in everybody’s mind about where Joey
(Burgi) was that night, because the defendant doesn’t know that Alondra has the Life 360 app, so
we know exactly where Joey was that night,” West said.
The district attorney also spoke about the ensuing investigation into Burgi’s death by the Val
Verde County Sheriff’s Office. She noted investigators found Burgi’s phone, smashed and
broken, on a bridge over Lake Amistad, and they also recovered pieces of a shotgun, including
the bolt, which matches the shotgun shells found at the scene of Burgi’s shooting.
West finished, “At the end of this trial, you will see that what we have proved for Daniel Lopez
is that on Oct. 2, 2023, in Val Verde County, Texas, Daniel Lopez intentionally and knowingly
caused the death of an individual, Joey Burgi. . . I am confident that at the end of the trial, you
will be able to see and find the defendant guilty of knowingly and intentionally killing 21-year-
old Joey Burgi with a firearm.”
Cadena then recognized Mireles.
Mireles said jurors must know the names of the people involved in Burgi’s and Lopez’s world,
and he said there were many of them.
Mireles showed a photo of Rene Garcia, a man he said was a friend of Burgi’s, with whom Burgi
was living prior to his death. He said the evidence will show that Garcia would send Burgi to do
jobs, including “illegal things,” like stealing.
Mireles said the evidence will also show that immediately prior to Burgi’s death, there was a
gathering at Garcia’s house, and “there was a plan to do something to Mr. Lopez.”
“Rene Garcia. Remember that name, because he is the catalyst, the impetus of this whole event.
In fact, the evidence is going to show that he says, ‘I should not have let him go.’ Don’t forget
Rene Garcia. He is the head of the beast,” Mireles said.
Mireles also spoke about other persons the jury would meet through their testimony and showed
jury members photos of the persons he was speaking about, including Ruben Hernandez and Dan
Villarreal.
Mireles also disputed West’s characterization of Burgi as a boy.
“He got out of prison in August (before his death). He’s not a boy. He’s a man. He’s been to
prison. . . The evidence is going to show that we’re not talking about a boy. We’re talking about a
grown man who had been to prison,” Mireles said.
Mireles also spoke to the jury about other persons expected to testify, including Maria Hernandez
and Angelica Moreno.
He pointed out the jurors would see video of his client and Burgi together a few hours before the
shooting and said they would be able to see “there was no animosity” between the two.
Mireles went over his own version of the timeline of events on the day before Burgi’s death. He
spoke in detail about the movement of various persons involved in the case before the discovery
of Burgi’s body.
Mireles spoke about the testimony the jury would hear from Lucas Garcia, the man who called in
two suspicious persons walking along Las Brisas Boulevard near his home in the early morning
of Oct. 2, 2023. He said Garcia told investigators one of the men was wearing a white shirt and
that the man wearing the white shirt had “the strap of a firearm” over one shoulder.
Mireles said a video jurors would see shows that Burgi was wearing a white shirt when he went
to the convenience store where his girlfriend worked.
“Burgi had the gun, Burgi was carrying the gun,” Mireles said.
Mireles told jurors “the plan” was “to get rid of Daniel Lopez, to take all the guns (from Lopez’s
father’s house), steal his truck.”
He characterized many of the witnesses as “a bunch of thieves,” and said, “The evidence is going
to show that this is not a murder, and you will see that in this trial.”
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
