UPDATE: Judge Navarrete officially sentenced Facundo Chavez to death on Thursday morning, Aug. 10.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The jury in the trial for Facundo Chavez recommended to sentence him to death on Wednesday, Aug. 9.
El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks says this is just a ruling.
“We feel that the verdict speaks appropriately for the crime, for what happened to Peter Herrera and we certainly feel that the appropriate thing has happened,” Hicks said.
Chavez’s Defense Attorney Louis Lopez speaking with the media on Wednesday after the ruling saying they are disappointed in the decision.
Lopez says they believed they presented a strong case to prove there were mitigating factors that would cause the jury to choose life in prison over death.
In the end, Lopez said the jury did what they asked them to do which was to listen to the evidence.
“…And I’m so proud of our El Paso community for coming and stepping forward. I think this is a difficult task for the jury to come in and to have to make this kind of decision about one of our community members. But they did and they did everything we wanted them to do,” Lopez said.
The sentencing trial for Chavez began last Friday, Aug. 4, after he was found guilty of killing El Paso County Sheriff Deputy Peter Herrera.
As we have previously reported, Chavez took the stand in his own defense during the conviction trial, admitting that he shot Herrera and described how he beat him with a gun.
The murder of Herrera happened back in March of 2019 and the case against Chavez took approximately four years before going to trial.
On Thursday, Aug. 10 the court will hear impact statements from members of Herrera’s family, then Judge Navarrete will officially sentence Chavez.
