Security Heavy at Reyes Capital Murder Pretrial Hearing

SAN ANGELO, TX – Tom Green County Sheriff’s deputies were out in force for the pretrial hearing Wednesday afternoon for 19-year-old Gilberto Salvador Reyes.  Reyes will stand trial for capital murder in the deaths of Juan Guerrero and Zane Lopez in 2016. 

Neither defense attorneys nor prosecutors had any issues to hear before District Judge Jay Weatherby. 

Weatherby reminded both sides that they have pretrial hearings scheduled for September 11 at 11 a.m. and October 5 at 10 a.m. for any additional motions or information. 

The jury trial for Reyes is scheduled to begin on October 16 at 10 a.m.

Also in court Wednesday afternoon was Fredrick John Gomez, 26, charged with manslaughter for the death of Fabian Ortiz. According to court documents, Gomez caused the death of Ortiz after Ortiz succumbed to his injuries sustained from a motor vehicle accident. Gomez’s indictment reads that the Grand Jury found Gomez guilty of “operating a motor vehicle in a dangerous manner by moving the steering wheel back and forth while driving at a high rate of speed” at the time of Ortiz's death.  Gomez was 17 years old at the time of the offense.

In June of 2011, Gomez pleaded guilty in front of the court and was placed on adult probation for a period of four years. However, on January 19, 2017, Gomez was arrested by San Angelo Police officers for Public intoxication and booked on a $442.00 bond. This violation of Gomez’s deferred adjudication terms, and possible previous violations, has caused the court to consider revoking Gomez’s probation.

On Wednesday afternoon, Gomez appeared before Senior Judge Tom Gossett for his Motion to Revoke Probation pre-trial, but the court Issued Gomez to appear again on Aug. 23 for a trial regarding his probation being revoked by the court.

Cameron Niblock contributed to this article.