Amarillo, TX -
The Seventh Court of Appeals in Amarillo denied David Carrillo's appeal for the deaths of his former common-law wife and her boyfriend.
Carrillo shot and killed Jennifer Cruz and Albert "Bo" Martinez in Cruz's home in April 2015, after breaking into the house.
In his appeal Carrillo argued he wasn't in a state of mind to know that he'd killed somebody. The appeals panel finds Carrillo told somebody about a gun he was carrying, threatening another one of Cruz's ex-boyfriends, spoke about problems with Cruz's new boyfriend the day before the shooting, asked someone to get him a supperssor for the gun and eventually claimed self-defense. With that the court agrees with the conviction.
The panel also found Carrillo had no rights to self-defense in this case because he broke into Cruz's home to commit the murders. Just as a person committing robbery has no right to self-defense, "a home intruder bent on harm and brandishing a deadly weapon should also lack the right to claim self-defense when his intended target fights back."
A Grand jury found Carrillo guilty of capital murder last year. The District Attorney's Office didn't ask for the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The Seventh Court affirmed Carrillo's conviction.
