Trials
A Bexar County retrial jury convicted Eric Vasquez of murder in a road-rage shooting and set his sentence at 25 years.
KSAT reported that on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, a new jury in San Antonio found Eric Vasquez guilty of murder in the January 2025 shooting death of Jay Whitemountain Morales, 41, on Spring Hurst Drive, and assessed 25 years in prison. His first trial ended in a mistrial in May. He claimed self-defense.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
A second jury does not owe anything to the first one. In May, a Bexar County jury could not agree on whether Eric Vasquez murdered Jay Whitemountain Morales or fired in self-defense. On Friday, a new jury rejected the self-defense claim, found him guilty of murder, and chose 25 years, KSAT reported. Life in prison was on the table. The jury picked a number well short of it. That verdict and that number are the judgment on this record.
KSAT reported that on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, a Bexar County jury found Eric Vasquez guilty of murder in the shooting death of Jay Whitemountain Morales, 41, a San Antonio father. The same jury decided he will serve 25 years in prison. The San Antonio Express-News also reported the guilty verdict and the sentence. KSAT gave Vasquez's age as 48 in its story and 47 in the caption on his Bexar County Adult Detention Center booking photo. The age gap is a records detail. It is not part of the verdict.
The shooting happened in January 2025 in the 6700 block of Spring Hurst Drive on the city's Northwest Side. KSAT reported that San Antonio police found Morales in critical condition with gunshot wounds and a weapon near him. He was taken to a hospital, where he died. The Bexar County District Attorney's Office said Vasquez followed Morales into his neighborhood. According to evidence the state presented, Morales got out of his vehicle to open the trunk, where a firearm was, and Vasquez shot him five times. Prosecutors told jurors Vasquez kept firing after Morales was hit, including shots fired while he stood over him, KSAT reported.
The case did not start that way. KSAT reported that a 2025 San Antonio police preliminary report described a verbal altercation between the two drivers that ended with both pulling over and shots being fired, and that police first named Morales as the suspect and Vasquez as the victim. The lead detective testified that new evidence changed the direction of the investigation. Court records show the Bexar County Sheriff's Office arrested Vasquez on Aug. 9, 2025, on a murder charge, KSAT reported. A first label in a police report is a starting point. It is not what a jury decides.
Vasquez's defense was self-defense. His lawyers argued that Morales pulled over first and pointed a gun at him, and at the retrial they told jurors there was no video or eyewitness testimony capturing the critical moments, KSAT reported. Prosecutors pointed to surveillance video they said showed aggressive driving by Vasquez before the shooting and to autopsy findings that Morales was shot five times. The first jury, in May, could not reach a unanimous verdict, and the court declared a mistrial. This week's jury heard the same competing accounts and returned a guilty verdict. Vasquez had faced up to life in prison. The reporting used here does not describe a notice of appeal. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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