Updated: June 25, 2018 7:00 p.m.
A jury has found a 32-year-old San Antonio man guilty and sentenced him to 60 years in prison for the October 2015 murder of his boyfriend during meth-fueled argument that led to the victim being stabbed repeatedly.
During the trial in the 186th state District Court, presided by Judge Jefferson Moore, David Asa Villarreal testified he stabbed his boyfriend, 29-year-old Aaron Estrada, in self-defense during a heated argument while the two were under the influence of crystal meth.
The two men had been in a romantic relationship for over two years.
Aaron Estrada (Courtesy photo)
In his testimony before the court, Villarreal said the drug use had made him paranoid about the hidden cameras Estrada had installed throughout the couple’s apartment. This lead to a heated argument that escalated when Villarreal cut off power to the cameras by flipping off all the switches in the apartment’s breaker box. He also removed the smoke detectors from rooms, believing they contained cameras.
Thinking he heard Estrada retrieving a gun from a safe that also contained knives, Villarreal told the court he grabbed a knife from the kitchen.
“I remember him yelling, ‘What the (expletive), David, why did you pull out the smoke detectors,’ and he grabbed me and starting choking me,” Villarreal testified. “I pulled the knife out of my back pocket and I remember stabbing him.”
The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Estrada’s death a homicide saying he died from sharp-force injury. The victim was stabbed seven times in the throat and head, and had defensive wounds on his hands. A pair of bloody scissors and a broken knife were found at the scene of the crime.
“I was scared. He was choking me, Villarreal told the court. “I was scared he could kill me. I wasn’t thinking. It was a reaction.”
Prosecuting attorneys, Kimberly Gonzalez and Ana Ochoa Nelson, maintained the two men were actually arguing over the fact that Villarreal was having an affair with a woman who was Estrada’s best friend and who regularly smoked meth with the two men.
This article was updated to include the jury’s sentence.
