A Bryan man accused of chasing down and fatally shooting a rival gang member brought his murder trial to a halt Tuesday morning when he opted at the last minute to accept a 45-year prison term.
Prosecutors had presented the jury with an opening statement and called the first two witnesses against Gerardo "Jerry" Garcia, 26, when the plea agreement was reached.
Garcia, prosecutors said, found Antonio Rodriguez, 24, beaten up in front of the Bryan Drive In convenience store on Groesbeck Street in February 2006 and chased him into a nearby neighborhood.
"Help! Help!" Rodriguez yelled as he pounded on the door of a stranger's home trying to get away, Assistant District Attorney Brian Baker said during his opening statement. "At that time, Gerardo Garcia raised his gun -- Boom! Boom! Boom! -- and he killed Antonio Rodriguez."
Baker and fellow prosecutor David Hilburn described Rodriguez as a construction worker, a father and a gang member who had moments earlier been beaten up by another group from the defendant's gang outside the convenience store. Garcia, they said, was one of four late-comers who opted to escalate the situation after the other group had left.
Prosecutors said they planned to call to the witness stand Adam Reyna, who was described as the "inca" -- or the regional leader -- of the defendant's gang.
Garcia requested that Reyna be brought into the courtroom -- apparently in disbelief that his gang leader was prepared to testify against him -- before accepting the plea agreement. The men stared at each from across the nearly empty courtroom for several long moments before Garcia waved him away angrily, mumbling as he returned to a side room where he had been negotiating.
Reyna was one of the four people who had initially beat Rodriguez up outside the convenience store after an underling in his gang pointed the rival out, prosecutors said. The gang leader had to save face and recruited others for a fight, prosecutors said. But he was in a tight spot, they said, explaining that he had previously been arrested by federal investigators and had agreed to secretly feed them information about the gang as part of a deal.
He knew they were keeping an eye on him, they said.
So when Reyna and three others confronted Rodriguez outside the store, he kept the fight short and had his associates quickly leave the scene before any lasting damage was done, prosecutors said.
"I'm not making excuses for Adam Reyna," Baker told jurors. "He's a gang member. He's a convicted felon."
But it was the defendant and three other men -- all described as members of Reyna's gang -- who arrived at the scene afterward without his knowledge and caused Rodriguez's death, Baker said.
"He executed Antonio Rodriguez on the front steps of [the stranger's home] out of hate because Antonio wore [opposing gang colors]," Baker said.
It is policy of The Eagle not to identify specific gang affiliations.
Had the trial continued, prosecutors said they would have submitted two secretly recorded conversations between Reyna and Garcia in which Garcia bragged about the shooting. Reyna is currently serving a 5-year, 10-month federal sentence on cocaine trafficking charges.
Garcia could have faced up to 99 years or life in prison for the first-degree felony murder charge. Because a deadly weapon was used while committing the crime, he will have to serve at least half of his 45-year term before he is eligible for parole.
The sentence will be served concurrently with a three-year, one-month federal sentence and a 10-year term for violating a previous felony probation.
The three other men who prosecutors described as accompanying Garcia each pleaded guilty to lesser charges in May and were given 15-month sentences. The sentences reflected their lesser participation in the crime, prosecutors said last spring, describing Garcia as the trigger man.
Defense attorney Craig Greaves declined to give an opening statement Tuesday. But by entering the plea agreement, he said after the trial, he believes his client avoided what could have potentially been a life sentence.
"Based on all the facts, I think [the plea] was in his best interest," Greaves said, explaining that once it was made clear Reyna would testify, his client agreed.
Prosecutors added later that they were happy with the outcome. With escalating gang violence, strong sentences serve as an important deterrent, Hilburn said Tuesday afternoon.
• Craig Kapitan's e-mail address is craig.kapitan@theeagle.com.
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