LaredoBuzz.Com

Courtesy Monica Garcia,

(Laredo, Tx)- A young woman testified yesterday morning in the trial of Joseph Allen Garcia to having received a call from the defendant on the night of the shooting.  He asked her to meet him at Adrian Rangel’s home and follow him to his own home.  She did not question him and did meet him at around 8pm and followed him to his home, where he parked what she described as a blue or green F150 in a car port at the rear of the home.  She said he came out, thanked her and then went into his home.  Shortly thereafter, she says the defendant called her again.  According to her testimony, “he said that if anyone would call me to say he was with me…yeah, that’s it…just that he was with me”.   She said she did not question the defendant but only agreed to do as he instructed. 

She testified that the following day, the police picked her up at her home and took her to the police station where she provided a written statement.  She testified that she was only 16 at the time and was very nervous.  On the stand, she stated that she lied in her first statement due to her being nervous and scared.  She said that she called her mother from the station and that her mother instructed her to tell the truth, so she gave police a second statement in which she provided the same information as that to which she testified today on the stand.

On cross examination, defense attorney Roberto Balli asked the witness whether she was aware of a drive-by shooting at the defendant’s home that occurred a few weeks prior to the murder of Gonzalez.  She responded that she did not know of the drive-by or shooting of the defendant’s home.  She was asked if she had seen the defendant with a weapon on the night that she followed him to his home.  She said she had not. 

She was asked whether she knew the murder victim, Mario Alberto Gonzalez.  She responded that she did know him and described him as a “good person, nice person, friendly”.