(FROM THE WEBB COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE) – The jury of the 49th District Court has sentenced former US Border Patrol supervisor Ronald Anthony Burgos-Aviles to life without parole for the 2018 capital murder of his lover, Grizelda Hernandez, and their one-year-old son, Dominic Alexander.
The jury considered evidence presented in the guilt and innocence phase of the trial, as well as additional evidence from the State in the sentencing phase that began on Friday July 7. The State presented evidence through witnesses, including the director of Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), Timothy Fitzpatrick, who testified on the differences between life without the possibility of parole and life on death row.
Family members of victims of the double homicide shared insight into the lives of the victims and the pain and loss that resulted from their deaths. The State also brought back Lead Detective Raimundo García to introduce explicit messages defendant Burgos-Aviles sent before, during, and after the murders.
Mental Health Specialist José Luis Macias of the Webb County Jail testified that he did not observe any delusions or psychotic symptoms on the day that Burgos-Aviles arrived at the jail. Dana Sarquiz of the Webb County Sherriff’s Office Intelligence Unit, introduced jail calls and emails made by the defendant throughout his time in custody at the Webb County Jail. She testified that communications by Burgos-Aviles showed manipulative, controlling, and calculated characteristics as well as violent tendencies. She said the communications illustrated the defendant’s ability to exhaust his resources to get around following the rules.
Rebutting the defense’s theories of Burgos-Aviles being “poisoned” by his doctor with a combination of phentermine and testosterone, causing him to allegedly suffer from psychosis, Dr. Dagoberto Gonzalez testified for the State that there are no reported cases of phentermine and testosterone that resulted in psychosis, and that Burgos-Aviles’ medical records showed that his dosages were within normal range. Dr. Gonzalez concluded that the defendant “was absolutely not poisoned.”
The trial, which took place before 49th District Court Judge Joe López, was presented to a jury over the course of three weeks.
District Attorney Isidro R. Alaniz, Chief Assistant District Attorney Marisela Jacaman, Assistant District Attorney Daniel Elizondo, Assistant District Attorney Jesus Vigil, Assistant District Attorney Kassandra De Hoyos, and Assistant District Attorney Carlos Garza prosecuted the case for the State.
(For a thorough and well-written account of the investigation into this double homicide and the ensuing trial, read writer Malena Charur’s excellent piece in the July 18, 2023 LMT.)
