Delacruz Jury Panel Convenes at McNease Convention Center January 11

SAN ANGELO, TX --  District Judge Ben Woodward outlined the process for selecting the jury for attorneys Friday morning in the capital murder trial of Isidro Delacruz.  

Woodward has instructed District Clerk Sheri Woodfin to call a panel of approximately 350 potential jurors to report to the McNease Convention Center beginning at 8 a.m. on January 11, 2018.  Potential jurors who receive a summons for jury panel seven on that day will be in the pool for the capital murder trial.  

Delacruz is accused of cutting the throat of 5-year-old Naiya Villegas who was the daughter of his ex-girlfriend Tanya Bermea.  

Delacruz’s attorneys William Boyles and Robert Cowie discussed the process of selecting 12 jurors and 2 alternates with Judge Woodward and prosecuting attorneys Allison Palmer and her assistant Megan White.  Woodfin gave the defense attorneys a copy of the potential jurors.  

Judge Woodward asked that Delacruz be officially arraigned even though his attorneys had waived the reading of the indictment.  Palmer read the amended indictment while Delacruz and his attorneys stood facing the judge.  

The indictment reads: “The Grand Jurors for the County of Tom Green, State of Texas, duly selected, impaneled, sworn, charged and and organized as such at the July Term 2014, of the 51ST District Court of said County, upon their oaths present in and to said Court, that ISIDRO MIGUEL DELACRUZ, JR, Defendant on or about the 2nd day of September, 2014, and before the present of this indictment, in said County and State, did then and there, intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual, namely, Naiya Villegas, an individual younger than 10 years of age, by cutting the throat of the said Naiya Villegas with a knife.”

Delacruz pleaded not guilty Friday morning.

Capital murder is punishable by life in prison without parole or by death.  

The final pretrial hearing for Delacruz is set for January 5, 2018.