SAN ANTONIO – On Friday, his second day testifying in his own defense during his murder trial, David Villarreal, 32, wept as his lawyer reviewed with him intimate texts he had exchanged with his lover, Aaron Estrada.
On Oct. 16, 2015, the day after that exchange of texts, Villarreal stabbed Estrada, 29, to death.
He claimed it was in self-defense, telling the jury that Estrada had been choking him during an argument over cameras hidden in Estrada’s apartment. Villarreal said Estrada told him the cameras made him paranoid.
On cross-examination, prosecutor Kimberly Gonzalez asked whether the real reason for the argument was the fact that Villarreal was intimately involved with a woman who was a mutual friend of the men.
“I don’t think I ever told him, but he knew,” Villarreal testified.
“He had suspicions, didn’t he?” Gonzalez asked.
“Yes,” replied Villarreal.
“And that’s why y’all were fighting before you killed him, right?” she asked.
“That’s not true,” Villarreal answered.
Villarreal said that after the stabbing, he fled to a friend’s apartment to cool off.
“I was parched and I ate more than one popsicle,” he said.
Gonzalez asked “You’d built up an appetite after that?”
Villarreal answered “I was very exhausted. I was very tired.”
Closing arguments in the trial are set for Monday in Judge Jefferson Moore’s 186th District Court.
A guilty verdict could mean a maximum sentence of life in prison for Villarreal.