Park 2400 Murder Victim's Girlfriend Threatened: 'Don't Snitch'

SAN ANGELO, TX – The closest witness to the Park 2400 murder victim took the stand during the afternoon portion of the jury trial of the State vs Jose "Joe Angel" Trevino on Wednesday afternoon.

San Angelo LIVE! has reported on the entire trial this week and most recently reported that the cocktail waitress at the pub confirmed the victim and the suspect were together that night.

Along with the victim, Jason Garivay, and the accused murderer, others were partying with the two that night at the bar. The rest of the group consisted of Garivay's brother, Roy Chavarria, his wife, Rita Chavarria, a friend of Trevino, and Garivay's girlfriend. Her name has been pulled from the article to help protect her identity. We'll get to why in a second.

She started her testimony by explaining how she knew everyone. It starts with Garivay. She told the court that she had known Garivay from some time but had only been dating him for a few months. She said that on the date of the murder, Jun. 18, 2021, she and Garivay had visited his friends house. This would later be identified as the home of Garivay.

Once there, the girlfriend said she stayed in the car and applied makeup and talked to her mother on the phone. Garivay however went inside for about 10 minutes before returning to the car. The group then went to the Penny Tap House, 2412 College Hills. Garivay and his girl went in his red corvette while Trevino and his friend went in Trevino's black Avalanche.

After they were seated inside the pub, Rita and Roy joined the party. The girlfriend said that at first everything was going good. The girls were hanging out at a booth while the boys were shooting pool. At one point even Garivay bought a beer for Trevino and gave it to his girlfriend, instructing her to give the beer to "Joe Angel."

After 2 hours and 2 shots later at the bar though things went south. Unfortunately no witnesses knew why the escalation grew. Trevino and Garivay were butting heads, said the girlfriend, but they were only whispering things to each other. Finally the argument got to the point where the two wanted to go fight outside. The girlfriend tried to stop it but on the stand she said, "Nothing was going to stop him." At one point the surveillance video backs up the girlfriend's testimony. The security camera videa shows Garivay push the her out of the way to get out of the pub.

Once outside, Roy told Garivay's girlfriend to go get the car. This was in hope of ending the escalation. Moments later, the girlfriend is seen on video pulling up the car and Garivay got in. Unfortunately for the girl she was not able to get him to stay in the car. This is where Garivay would make his final stand. 

After the fight happened, Roy and Rita loaded up Garivay's nearly lifeless body into the car. The girlfriend suspected the situation was serious as Garivay was not responding but instead she said it sounded like he was snoring. She rushed him to the hospital, running all the red lights on College Hills, Beauregard, and Harris. Once she arrived at the hospital she immediately went inside to find help.

Seconds later, Rita and Roy showed up at the Shannon ER. While at the hospital the girlfriend claims she was cornered by Rita. During the moment, which was caught on Shannon surveillance video, Rita grabbed the girl by the face. The girlfriend testified that Rita told the her that she better not talk to police or tell them that she knew anything. This scared the girl because of the first time she had met the Chavarria's.

The first time the two had met was at a barbecue at Chavarria's home. There, Roy and Jason shared gruesome stories about things they had done to other people. No details were given in court besides that they did bad things to people. A criminal record search shows a number of aggravated crimes including aggravated assault, robbery, and kidnapping for Chavarria.

The girlfriend said that even today she worries about the situation. In fact, the jury was dismissed briefly so the DA, judge and defense could console the girlfriend and encourage her to testify.

"All you have to do is tell the truth," 119th DA John Best told her.

Despite her fear, after the jury returned, the girlfriend was courageous enough testify. 

The trial will reconvene tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. Stay on San Angelo LIVE! for updates at least twice a day.