Second trial day for man accused of triple murder in 1994

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Today was the second day of the capital murder trial for Atruro Ortega Garcia, the man accused of stabbing and killing a family of three in East El Paso in 1994.

As ABC-7 has reported, Dante Santoni, 3, his mother, Connie Villa, 28, and Villa's longtime partner and Dante's father, Francisco Santoni, 59, were found stabbed to death on Aug. 11, 1994, in their East El Paso home.

The District Attorney's Office called two witnesses to the stand today: an El Paso Police Department detective who translated Ortega Garcia's 2022 interrogation and an El Paso County chief medical examiner.

During the interrogation, Ortega Garcia said he couldn't give any names or information to detectives because he and his family had been threatened in the U.S. and in Mexico.

At some point, Ortega Garcia told EPPD detectives that "he was innocent and that he was going to fight for him," adding that he had the answer to the murder case but was afraid of retaliation and of telling the truth to detectives because he knew who committed the murder.

This afternoon, both the prosecution and the defense rested their cases, and the trial is set to continue with closing arguments tomorrow at 8:30 a.m.

ABC-7 previously had in-depth coverage of this case. You can watch and listen to the full Borderland Crimes Podcast here.