PHARR, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A Pharr man was sentenced to more than four decades in state jail for murdering his brother with a pickaxe, court records show.
David Davila Sandoval was sentenced Thursday to 45 years in state jail in the 2021 killing of Ruben Sandoval, according to Hidalgo County records.
Previous ValleyCentral reports stated that police located Ruben’s body in the back of a pickup truck at Memorial Park. According to police, his body had multiple stab wounds from a “violent attack.”
On April 22, 2021, David was arrested on charges of capital murder by terror threat, evading arrest and tampering with physical evidence.
The indictment states that David struck Ruben with a pickaxe during the course of a robbery.
Along with David, police arrested Roel Pesina on a charge of tampering with physical evidence and failure to report a felony. Pesina’s status hearing was rescheduled for Oct. 13 following Sandoval’s sentencing.
As part of David’s sentence, he was given a jail credit of nearly 2.5 years.
