Laughter filled the 107th District Court in Brownsville on Tuesday, an unexpected sound at a murder trial, but that is how friends remember 17-year-old Tiffany Galvan.
"She was really loud and really happy all the time.” Her best friend Alex Zabaleta said. “She would always, like, try to brighten someone's day if she saw that they were sad."
But it all died down as reality kicked in, a world without Tiffany.
The second day of the hearing for her killer, Javier de la Rosa heated up.
Several prosecution witnesses took the stand, among them, de la Rosa's ex girlfriend from their sophomore year in high school, Roxanne Rodriguez.
"Where did he hit you?” the prosecution asked Rodriguez.
“Somewhere around the cheek," she responded.
Testimony revealed that the Lopez football player had punched her leaving her with a black eye.
"He put on gloves and the he struck her in the face three times is that correct?” the prosecution asked Adrian Cisneros, a friend of de la Rosa who witnessed the fight.
He quietly responded saying yes.
But the defense claims de la Rosa was pressured into it and that his ex girlfriend bullied him and that led to the fight.
Back in March, de la Rosa pled guilty to stabbing Tiffany Galvan 48 times then dumping her body at a park in August of 2010.
Twelve members of the jury will decide his fate and can sentence him to up to 99 years in prison.
During the trial, a friend of Tiffany said that she had told her two weeks before her murder that she was not pregnant after all.
Defense attorneys claimed she was misleading de la Rosa.
The sentencing trail will resume Wednesday at 9 in the morning.
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