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Gregory Dalton will serve life without parole after quick jury verdict.
With two co-defendants testifying Gregory Dalton pulled the trigger in a botched robbery in East Austin, a Travis County jury deliberated for less than an hour Friday before finding him guilty of capital murder.
Dalton will serve a life sentence without parole for fatally shooting Jose Dejesus Chavez after, according to testimony, Dalton and two other men drove north from San Antonio on Nov. 20, 2014, scoped out an apartment complex in Southeast Austin and kicked in Chavez’s door to demand ecstasy.
After an eight-month investigation, police arrested Dalton, 32, Shawn Michael Smith, 34, and Jeffery Mendez, 31. Each was charged with capital murder, which is punishable with an automatic life or death sentence. Prosecutors didn’t seek the death penalty in Dalton’s case.
Smith, who awaits his own trial, testified earlier in the week that the three men believed Chavez would be an easy target and give up the drugs without incident. He said he joined Dalton inside the apartment while Mendez stayed outside.
But Chavez put up a fight, Smith said, and lunged for Dalton, who fired three shots. Two of them hit the victim in the abdomen and chest.
Smith came forward to police two years later and admitted his role in the incident. Mendez had shared his story with authorities a month earlier. Both of them denied under oath that they were testifying in exchange for lighter sentences in their own cases.
“It’s the right thing to do,” Smith
said. “No one should lose their life.”
Dalton’s attorney, Patrick Hancock of San Antonio, expressed skepticism over Smith’s benevolence, citing letters Smith sent the other defendants from jail that said something about a 40-year offer he had been presented with.
“They want some hope” that testifying will aid their cases, Hancock said in closing arguments.
Cellphone records show the three men were in the area of Chavez’s apartment around the time of the murder.
According to Smith, they got into his tan Ford Taurus and smoked marijuana as Smith drove them to Austin about 9:30 p.m. They stopped at a convenience store for water and beer before making their way to Chavez’s apartment at 4900 E. Oltorf St. Mendez had visited the apartment earlier in the day to buy drugs from Chavez and informed his friends the robbery would be easy, Smith testified.
Smith implicated himself on the stand, but said it wasn’t his intention for anyone to die.
Prosecutor Joe Frederick informed Smith he had just confessed to capital murder, and that the jury in his trial would be given a transcript of his testimony. Smith said he understood, but “I want the story told right.”
In closing arguments, prosecutor Anna Lee McNelis called the case a “whodunit for months and months.”
She disputed the defense’s idea that Dalton, not Mendez, had been outside while the other two men broke into the home.
“The evidence completely contradicts that,” she said.
That evidence includes a text message Mendez sent to the others — after police arrived and the three men had scattered — asking if they were able to get any drugs from the apartment.