SAN ANTONIO – A couple is in custody after San Antonio police said they pulled up to a man’s West Side home and lured him to their vehicle before fatally shooting him in broad daylight last month.
Gilbert Torres, 22, and Stephanie Zaragosa, 20, were arrested Saturday and charged with murder, booking records with the Bexar County Jail show.
Zaragosa and Torres are accused in the shooting death of Mario Alverez, 21. The incident happened around 2:45 p.m. on Aug. 29 in the 3800 block of Morales.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Zaragosa admitted to police that she was driving a Jeep Cherokee that pulled up to Alverez’s home. Torres was hidden by the tinted windows in the backseat.
Zaragosa motioned for Alverez to walk over to the vehicle and when he got close, Torres rolled down the window and shot him multiple times, according to police.
The Jeep sped away from the scene before officers arrived. About three minutes later, the pair arrived at an H-E-B store to purchase groceries, the affidavit states.
Alverez was taken by ambulance to a hospital, but he died from his injuries a short time later.
Police interviewed multiple witnesses and the victim’s family, who said that Alverez had been having problems with a man named “Nate.”
“Nate” lived with his child’s mother in the 1000 block of Callaghan Road in the past, and that’s where officers later found the suspects’ Jeep.
Officers went to the residence where the Jeep was found and spoke to the tenants, which included Zaragosa and her brother. It was then that Zaragosa agreed to speak with police, but she was “dishonest initially,” the affidavit states.
Eventually, she admitted to driving the Jeep, but told officers a man she had met only once was responsible for shooting Alverez and she didn’t know his name, according to the affidavit.
Zaragosa also claimed she was angry with the victim for cutting “Nate” several months earlier.
Later that same afternoon, Zaragosa’s mother phoned police and told them her daughter went to H-E-B during the afternoon of the murder with her boyfriend, G-Money.
Police asked her what G-Money’s real name was, and she told officers she thought it was Gilbert, but that’s all she knew.
H-E-B later provided surveillance video of the Jeep pulling into the parking lot minutes after the shooting and police obtained the address and phone number of Torres’ mother.
Once Torres was positively identified, police obtained arrest warrants for both him and Zaragosa, but on unrelated charges.
Zaragosa later confessed to police that Torres had shot the victim, though he refused to speak and asked for an attorney.
Both are now being held in the Bexar County Jail. According to court records, both of their bonds are set at $175,000 each.