Jury trial starts for 2021 McDonald’s murder

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Tuesday, the jury trial for a 2021 murder at a McDonald's parking lot started. Robron Lewis is facing capital murder charges for the shooting, which police said started as a drug deal.

It happened Oct. 28, 2021, at a McDonald's on Mesa Street near the University of Texas at El Paso, according to police reports. An affidavit said 24-year-old Tranquil Card was also involved.

Police said the men allegedly shot and killed 22-year-old Jacal Jacob Allen, stole 10 pounds of marijuana and left the area.

Lewis and Card reportedly agreed to purchase the marijuana from Allen, according to police.

An off-duty officer followed Lewis and Card and found them hiding in a UTEP auditorium, according to documents. At the time, the campus dorms went under a shelter-in-place as police searched and captured the pair.

Lewis was 22 years old at the time of the shooting, as ABC-7 previously reported.

A judge later denied bond for Card and ordered Lewis be held on a $2 million bond.

ABC-7 previously reported that UTEP President Heather Wilson acknowledged students' complaints about not knowing about police searching the campus for the suspects.

“There was a crime that happened off-campus last night that resulted in community police coming on-campus searching for the suspects. Our notification to the campus community to shelter-in-place was not fast enough. We are reviewing our response and lessons learned to fix problems,” she told ABC-7 in a statement.