Plea Dropped, Gangland Execution Trial Starts Tuesday

A plea bargain that would have handed accused capital murderer Daniel Uvalle two concurrent life sentences and a reduced charge was taken off the table on Wednesday at a final pre-trial hearing before the case goes to jury trial next week.

Uvalle, 18, is accused of capital murder of multiple persons for his role in the Sept. 1, 2013 execution of two San Angelo 22-year-olds at an apartment complex on the west side of town.

After over a year of preparation, both attorneys for the defense, Melvin Gray and Fred Brigman, and District Attorney Allison Palmer announced that they would be ready to begin trial on Tuesday, Feb. 17.

A plea bargain offered by the DA for a guilty plea was finally turned down at Wednesday’s hearing, the date on which the deal was set to expire. Palmer had offered Uvalle two first-degree murder charges, each with life sentences, in exchange for a guilty plea, which would have made him eligible parole after 30 years, when he is 48 years old.

Although he has been charged with a capital crime, Uvalle may not be sentenced to life without parole because he was 17 at the time of the offense. Federal law governing capital offenses committed by minors exempts them from the death penalty and sentences of life without parole. The plea bargain offered in the case is the maximum punishment a jury can dole out if Uvalle is convicted, however if a jury finds him guilty of capital murder rather than murder in the first degree, he will be required to serve 40 years before he is eligible for parole.

Brigman told the court that the defense had asked the DA to consider an agreement at 50 years, but Palmer firmly stated she wasn’t going to ponder and negotiate, and wanted an affirmative plea from the defendant.

As both parties declared themselves ready for trial, Brigman noted that he would like to have a lesser-included charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony, included in the instructions presented to the jury at the conclusion of the guilt-innocence phase of the trial. Judge Tom Gossett responded that the inclusion of that charge will depend upon the evidence presented.

Jury selection is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, and the trial is anticipated to last four days. Uvalle's co-defendant, Johnny Garcia, will not go to trial till May.