BREAKING: El Paso man found not guilty of throwing then-girlfriend from truck

A jury found Rene Carrillo not guilty of throwing his 51-year-old girlfriend out of his pickup while driving in Las Cruces.

Carrillo, who is from El Paso, was charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm and battery against a household member.

On Wednesday, both the state and defense had one last chance to argue what happened that night. State prosecutor Tomas Medina reminded the jury that Carrillo changed his words several times during testimony. At one point, Carrillo said the woman jumped out of the truck. He then said she fell out.

But the defense argued Carrillo immediately stopped the truck to help her. They said that would not be Carrillo’s immediate reaction if he pushed her. They also questioned where the bruises were on Maria Aguero’s body, since she said Carrillo struck her repeatedly.

Aguero, Carrillo’s girlfriend at the time, gave emotional testimony Tuesday. She said Carrillo struck her multiple times, unbuckled her seat belt and pushed her out of his moving truck. She said she suffered from a severe head injury and had to do extensive therapy to learn how to walk properly again. She said she didn’t regain her memory of that night until two months after the incident. Aguero said the incident happened because of a fight about her ex-husband.

On Tuesday, witnesses described what they saw that night.

“Everything was down,” witness Terrence Delzer said. “The head went out first and the body just followed. Sort of like a rag doll falling or something.”

But Carrillo said he never struck Aguero. He testified Aguero wanted out of the truck, and he tried to stop her. Carrillo said she unbuckled her own seatbelt and jumped out.

“We were arguing and she grabbed the wheel,” Carrillo said. “At the same time, the door was already open. She grabbed the wheel, she proceeded to get out of the vehicle.”

The incident happened shortly before 8 p.m. on April 25, 2015. Las Cruces Police were dispatched to Union Avenue near Oak Street, where it appeared the woman fell from the passenger seat of a red truck. The woman was on the roadway, unconscious and with injuries to her head.?

?A witness told detectives that as the pickup approached Oak Street, the passenger door of the vehicle opened and Carrillo punched the woman causing her to fall from the moving vehicle.??Carrillo remained on scene and was detained without incident.

During an inventory of Carrillo’s property officers located a white powdery substance in the suspect’s wallet. A field test of that substance revealed the presence of cocaine. Carrillo still has a cocaine charged pending, but a trial date has not been set. Carrillo’s defense filed a motion to try Carrillo for the cocaine charge separately.