San Antonio, TX: Man goes on trial for shooting death of girlfriend

By Guillermo Contreras

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A San Antonio man went on trial Wednesday, charged in the fatal shooting his girlfriend, but his lawyer argued that it was accidental.

Leonard Terrazas entered not guilty pleas to charges of murder and manslaughter in the Sept. 29, 2008, death of Samantha Herrera, 19, a student at San Antonio College.

Prosecutor Catherine Hayes told jurors that Terrazas, 23, bought a .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun “from some homeboys” before the shooting, purportedly for protection.

Hayes told the jury they would hear testimony that Terrazas took the gun to his mother's home, where he lived with Herrera, loaded it and fired a fatal shot went through Herrera's head and out her neck, Hayes said. Herrera would have turned 20 the following day.

When police arrived, Terrazas was “very, very upset,” holding Herrera and not wanting to let go, Hayes said.

“The defense will say it was an accident, that he didn't mean to kill her,” Hayes said.

But Hayes alleged that Terrazas intentionally fired the gun or was reckless with it. She noted that jurors will also hear evidence that Terrazas was possessive and controlling, giving a hint of a motive prosecutors plan to show.

“If you point a gun at someone's head and pull the trigger, the result is murder,” Hayes said.

Terrazas' lawyer, Robert Featherston, told the jury that his client does not dispute shooting Herrera.

But “the evidence will show it was not an intentional or reckless act,” Featherston said. He urged jurors to keep an open mind because “you will see it was not a voluntary act.”

In a videotaped statement Terrazas gave to police, Terrazas said he had been showing Herrera how to use the gun and both even tried “dry firing” it — squeezing the trigger without bullets in it.

But, according to his statement, as Terrazas showed Herrera the safety button, the gun went off. He was adamant he had believed there was no round in the chamber.

“It went, ‘Pop!' I looked up and I thought I hit the wall,” Terrazas said in the statement.

Terrazas faces up to life in prison if convicted of murder.