Neighbor Testifies In Carsner Capital Murder Trial

The capital murder trial for the woman accused of killing her mother and stepfather continued Tuesday in the 171st District Court.

Laura Grisel Carsner is accused of shooting and killing 68-year-old Irma Quiroz and 66-year-old Alejandro Quiroz in the backyard of their Northeast El Paso home in 2009. Neighbors said Carsner was in a custody battle with her parents over her own children.

On Monday, there were concerns about two of the jurors who said say they should be disqualified because they don’t speak English. But but Judge Bonnie Rangel said the trial will continue — for now — because the jurors sat through the proceedings all day Monday and never brought it to anyone’s attention. Rangel also said that there are two alternate jurors if needed and that she will revisit the jury concerns later.

On Tuesday both the prosecution and defense chose not to give opening arguments.

The prosecution called it’s first witness, Jose adame, who lived two houses down from the victims’ home

Adame said that on the day of the shooting, he was walking out of his house to get something out of his car when he saw a dark colored minivan pull up in front of his house.

Adame said he saw a person get out of the minivan and walked to the victims’ house and then around to the backyard. Adame was not sure if it was a man or a woman because the person was wearing a hat.

Adame said he became suspicious, so he walked into his house and told his wife.

When Adame and his wife walked outside their home, he said they heard several bangs. Adame said he initially thought it was fireworks, but then he says he realized it was a series of gunshots. He told his wife to go back inside the house and he called 911.

Adame said he saw the driver of the minivan run back to the vehicle and stumble to get inside. The diver made a U-turn, hit the curb, and sped off, Adame said.

Adame said that as the minivan was driving away, he saw two children run out of the victims’ house screaming, “Mom! Mom! Mom!”

The prosecution said the shooter was Carsner, the mother of the children.

The defense then cross-examined, mainly touching on the issue of where the chidren were when the person in the minivan drove off.

KVIA.com will update this story as details come in.