SAN ANTONIO – Just as the Greenhouse Rooftop Garden club in the 4500 block of Loop 1604 was about to close on the night of May 17, 2014, a fight involving dozens of patrons broke out.
“I saw bottles being thrown, so at that point, I was just trying to pull all of the bottles off the bar top, because they were grabbing beer bottles and throwing them,” one of the bartenders on duty that night testified.
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The bartender was a state’s witness in the murder trial of Daniel Garza.
Garza, 40, is accused of shooting Miguel Vasquez, 26, to death during the melee.
“I saw he had a gun,” another bartender testified.
“He kind of hesitated and then someone ran up to him and said something to him, and the next thing I remember, he pulled out a gun and shot him,” the second bartender told the jury.
Her testimony seemed to indicate that she was still shaken by what she saw.
“I was pretty close," the second bartender testified with her voice trembling. “I felt, like, a blast, and then I just fell to the ground.”
Still down, she said she tried to look around.
“When I looked up, two guys, I guess Playboy’s friends, had picked up his arms, trying to get him out of the building,” she recalled.
Avery testified earlier that Vasquez was a regular patron at the bar, where he was known as Playboy.
Garza was arrested in the parking lot and booked for murder.
If he is convicted, he is facing a maximum punishment of life in prison.
Testimony is expected to continue on Wednesday in Judge Steve Hilbig’s 187th District Court.
