Man convicted in 83-year-old grandmother's fatal shooting

EDINBURG - The organizer of a holdup last year that resulted in the death of an 83-year-old woman was convicted Thursday on a capital murder charge.

An Hidalgo County jury found Ricardo Lopez guilty after less than four hours of deliberation and a three-day trial in which witnesses testified that he spoke of plans to steal wheel rims for his Chrysler 300 sedan at gunpoint.

Prosecutors alleged that Lopez's plot resulted in the June 8, 2008, attack near the intersection of Monte Cristo and Depot roads that left Elena Ayala dead.

At least two unknown assailants cut off a Chrysler 300 Ayala was riding in, jumped out of their own vehicle and opened fire on the target car. Ayala's daughter and son-in-law, who were also in the vehicle, managed to escape uninjured but that Edinburg grandmother sustained a mortal injury.

"It's unfortunate," Hidalgo County Assistant District Attorney Graciela Saenz Reyna said after Thursday's verdict. "This was all for some rims for the vehicle he is driving right now."

Although investigators never suspected Lopez of direct involvement in the attack, they found the pistol used to shoot Ayala buried and wrapped in newspaper in his yard. He refused to give a statement to police and never implicated any others in the crime.

Ballistic tests matched Lopez's weapon to the pistol used to shoot Ayala, but his defense team seized on the fact that experts did not conclusively determine that the weapon fired projectiles discovered at the crime scene.

Lopez's attorney - Rene Flores - also challenged the description Ayala's daughter gave of the murder weapon when she recalled the attack for jurors earlier in the week.

Modesta Diaz told the court that she recalled her attackers using a dark gun. The weapon deputies seized from Lopez was chrome plated and shiny, Flores said.

"We were very confident going into the trial that we had a strong case," he said Thursday. "The result, though, was very disappointing."

Flores said his client plans to appeal the jury's conviction.

Because prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in this case he was sentenced to an automatic life term in state prison without the possibility of parole.