Juarez Man Found Guilty Of ‘Random’ Murder In El Paso

An El Paso jury found 21-year-old Juarez man, Sergio Rene Montejano, guilty of the 2009 murder of 45-year-old Juan Santos.

Deliberations began on Tuesday afternoon, and after being sequestered overnight, the jurors finally handed down their guilty verdict Wednesday.

Montejano was accused of randomly shooting and killing Santos while he was walking with his wife, Norma Gonzalez de Santos, in El Paso’s Segundo Barrio.

Gonzalez de Santos identified Montejano as the man who shot her husband on Oct. 5, 2009. Gonzalez de Santos testified she would never forget the man who gunned down her husband, and pointed a gun in her face.

A photograph of the murder victim and his family was still displayed on a projector, as Montejano’s mother began her tearful testimony. She said her son grew up in what she described as a “low-income” neighborhood in Juarez, Mexico, without any contact with his father.

At 14-years-old Monetjano left school with an eighth-grade education. She said by the time he was 16 years old, Montejano was a heavy drug user. She said he would abuse a combination of pills, marijuana, and become incoherent, often to the point he would urinate or defecate himself. She said she committed her son twice for drug rehabilitation between the ages of 16 and 18.

She said after a rash of violence in their neighborhood, her son’s condition worsened. She testified that in January 2009, six of Montejano’s neighborhood friends were murdered two blocks away from their home, and that three months later, Montejano watched as his best friend was gunned down and later died in his arms.

The prosecution peppered Montejano’s mother with questions regarding the neighborhood violence, asking, “Do you think it’s terrible that so many people have been killed?,” “Do you agree people should be held responsible?” and “You think Sergio’s friend being gunned down was horrible?” to which Montejano’s mother replied, “I know where you’re going with this, attorney.”

The judge issued a recess at around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, during the prosecution’s questioning of Montejano’s mother. Montejano’s mother agreed to resume her testimony at 8 a.m. Thursday.

Montejano was also found guilty of five additional counts of aggravated assault, and is expected to be sentenced for the murder charge and five aggravated assault charges on Thursday.