MERCEDES, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A Mercedes man has been sentenced to life in prison after a Hidalgo County jury found him guilty of capital murder.
On Nov. 9, the jury found Ramiro Garcia Lopez, 51, guilty of capital murder by terror/threat. Lopez was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice – Institutional Division.
According to a news release from Hidalgo County, on or about April 7, 2016, Lopez arranged for a man to meet him at his place of business. The man was then beaten there, was kidnapped to a rural canal bank in Mercedes, and was killed, the release stated.
“I commend ADA’s Andrea Maldonado and Marco Cepeda for bringing this suspect to trial and successfully acquiring a guilty verdict,” Criminal District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez Jr. said. “The facts of the case were laid out to the jury, and they agreed the defendant should spend his life in prison.”
The jury was selected on Oct. 31, and the trial was held from Nov. 1 through 8.
