By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A 19-year-old Del Rio was handed an automatic life sentence Friday after he was found guilty of capital murder in the 2022 shooting death of an 11-year-old boy.
A jury in state district court deliberated for about eight-and-a-half hours on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning before returning with the guilty verdict at 12:20 p.m. Friday.
After attorneys for both the state and Garcia had made their closing arguments to the jury, Presiding Judge Sid Harle announced the court would move from the Del Rio Civic Center to the county judicial center downtown because civic center staff had to prepare for an event later that day.
At the county judicial center, the jury began its deliberations about 12:30 p.m. Thursday. When no verdict had been reached four-and-a-half hours later, Harle allowed jurors to go home overnight and asked them to return to the jury room at 8:30 a.m. Friday. The jury returned Friday morning and deliberated just under four more hours before returning the guilty verdict.
After reviewing the verdict, Harle directed Garcia and his appointed attorney, Albert Valadez of Ft. Stockton, to stand.
After reading the guilty verdict, Harle said he accepted the verdict and announced that under the law, a verdict of guilty on a capital murder charge requires an automatic life sentence.
Lizette Rodriguez, Nate Rubio’s mother, who wept often during the testimony and the attorneys’ closing arguments, sat in the front row of the second floor courtroom in the county judicial center, silent and dry-eyed as the verdict was read and the sentence imposed.
Rodriguez was flanked by Nate’s father, Jesus Rubio, and by Debbie Garcia, the district attorney’s office victims advocate.
After the verdict was read and the sentence announced, Harle excused the jurors and asked them to return to the jury room.
He then asked if there were victim impact statements to be read, and prosecutors said Rodriguez wished to make a statement. Harle directed Garcia and his attorney to sit facing Rodriguez, who stood at a podium set up in front of the audience gallery.
Garcia glanced briefly at Rodriguez as she stood at the podium, then looked down at his hands and did not look at her again.
“I want you to know that I forgive you. I won’t forget what you did, but I forgive you, okay?” Rodriguez began.
“And I want you to know, too, that both of us lost, but at the end, you won. . . You’re still able to call your mother. You’re still able to write to them. They’re still able to see you, and I’m never going to have the chance to do that again,” Rodriguez said, her voice breaking.
“And I know that maybe you didn’t mean to do it, but you did it. You took away my son, and I really want you to think about what you did, and someday, I hope that you’ll have remorse about it, because I haven’t seen no remorse in you at all.
“And I hope that you remember those pictures (of Nate) forever, just like I’m going to, because I’m never going to forget those images. That’s the only thing you left me with. . . He’s never going to speak to me again. I’m never going to have Christmas with him again, and his birthday; remember this date, his birthday is Dec. 28, after Christmas, so our holidays are never going to be the same again.
“But I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you have to go through this because I know that something in your life was missing for you to do the things you did. . . I don’t wish you no bad, just please, think about the things you did,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez then thanked all of the people involved in bringing the case against Garcia to trial, including the district attorney’s office, the attorney general’s office and the law enforcement officers who worked on it.
After Harle announced the court was in recess, Valadez moved to speak to Garcia, and when two sheriff’s deputies approached the defense table, Garcia appeared to refuse to stand up.
The deputies grasped Garcia, one on each arm, lifted him from the chair and hustled him out of the courtroom. Members of the audience were directed to stay in the courtroom until Garcia was taken out of the courthouse and loaded into a transport vehicle for the trip back to the county jail.
From the jail, Garcia will eventually be transferred to a state prison.
The writer can be reached at DelRioMagnoliaFan@gmail.com .
Other stories about this murder case: NEWS – Second day of testimony in capital murder trial – 830Times
NEWS – Testimony begins in trial of man accused of capital murder – 830Times
