By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Excruciating details about the last moments in the life of Sandra De La Cruz were revealed Wednesday at the start of witness testimony in the ongoing trial of Clarissa Guerra.
Guerra, 25, has been charged with murder and felony evidence tampering in the fatal shooting of De La Cruz, 27, whose body was discovered on a road inside the San Felipe Cemetery off Brodbent Avenue in south Del Rio on the morning of March 7, 2021.
Dr. Corinne Stern, chief medical examiner for the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office in Laredo, was the first witness District Attorney Suzanne West called Wednesday to testify in the trial.
Stern told the jury Val Verde County contracts with her office to perform autopsies requested by local officials. Stern said she conducts autopsies to determine the cause and manner of an individual’s death.
West asked Stern to talk about each of the wounds she had found on De La Cruz’s body and described in her report on the autopsy. As the medical examiner testified, photos of the injuries she was discussing were displayed for the jury on a large video screen inside the courtroom.
Stern documented eight gunshot wounds on De La Cruz’s body.
The first was a gaping slash on her right cheek where the bullet entered her body. That bullet then fragmented, and the fragments exited De La Cruz’s body under her chin and through her throat.
Another bullet entered the outside of De La Cruz’s right arm, exited the inside of her right arm, re-entered the right side of her chest and exited on the same side.
Stern described the entrance wound created by another bullet, this one also on the right inside of De La Cruz’s chest. This bullet, Stern testified, did not exit the body, but was recovered from under the left breast. She described the bullet she recovered as “a large-caliber, copper-jacketed deformed bullet.”
Stern also described an entrance wound on De La Cruz’s right wrist that exited the right forearm. A similar wound was found on De La Cruz’s left arm, with the bullet entering and exiting the left forearm.
Stern detailed a gunshot entrance wound to the right side of De La Cruz’s chest. She described the wound by reading from her report: “The bullet perforated skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscle, rib #7, middle lobe of the right lung, pericardial sac, right auricle of the heart, right ventricle, pericardial sac, rib #6 on the left anteriorly and terminated its path in the soft tissue of the left lateral chest from where it was recovered.”
Stern also detailed a gunshot entrance wound on De La Cruz’s left buttock, with an exit wound on her left thigh and another gunshot wound on De La Cruz’s left arm.
Stern also testified about several other injuries she found and documented, including an abrasion on De La Cruz’s right upper chest, abrasions on both of her knees, bruises on both of her shins and a bruise on her left forearm.
Stern also testified a toxicology test had been performed as part of the autopsy and told the jury that test showed De La Cruz “had been consuming methamphetamine and prescription medication prior to her death.”
But the cause and manner of her death were clear, Stern testified.
“She died of multiple gunshot wounds,” Stern said.
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