San Antonio Jury Finds David Marmolejo Guilty Of Mother’s Murder
David Marmolejo has been found guilty in his murder retrial in the July 2009 strangulation death of his mother, Gloria Marmolejo.
David showed little emotion, simply looked down and then sat down and buried his head in his hands after the verdict was read. David’s brother, his brother’s wife and his uncle were in the courtroom when the verdict was read and embraced each other.
It took a San Antonio jury of seven men and five women a little more than two hours to reach the verdict. The defense had asked for a change of venue after the first trial.
Judge Gonzalo Garcia declared a mistrial after the fall trial when an El Paso jury deadlocked and could not reach a verdict after two-and-a-half days of deliberations.
The prosecution approached the retrial differently. Where the first few days of the case in the fall trial focused on days of phone records and police testimony, this time around a shorter amount of time was spent on those aspects of the case.
The other major difference was Mariah Wilson, David’s stepsister and girlfriend at the time of Gloria’s murder, did not testify in the second trial.
In the first trial, Wilson testified under full immunity that David admitted to her that he killed his mother and they both disposed of the body in the desert near Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
Just as in the first trial, Wilson’s name was brought up several times in the second trial by the defense as a person El Paso Police should have looked at as a suspect. Because she did not testify in this trial the jury could not be told about her full immunity. Under the immunity agreement, the state would not file charges against Wilson if she testified truthfully.
Wilson could be seen crying in the San Antonio courthouse hallway on Monday morning.
Several of David and Gloria’s family members testified that Gloria did not like Wilson and did not like the relationship between Wilson and David.
The sentencing phase is expected to begin later today. David faces up to life in prison.
