According to reports, a man from Texas is accused of carrying out an execution-style homicide on his neighbor, reportedly shooting him up to 30 times.
The gravity of this act prompted a judge to set bail at $2 million, with the intention of keeping the alleged shooter in custody.
The accused, Trevor McEuen, is believed by prosecutors to have meticulously plotted the fatal assault on his neighbor, Aaron Martinez, which occurred on May 1. It is reported by Dallas Fox station that McEuen employed a firearm attachment designed to capture spent bullet casings.
Legal representatives for the state provided a grim account of how McEuen allegedly shot Martinez multiple times in the back before striking his forehead. In an interview with WFAA-TV, Priscilla Martinez, Aaron’s widow, expressed her grief, saying, “We have to have a closed casket — that’s how bad it was. It was 15 to 30 times. That’s hate.”
The two men are said to have harbored ill feelings toward each other before this incident, as per Aaron Martinez’s father’s statement to the local media. The brutal act was denounced by a Martinez family spokesperson, Carlos Quintanilla, as a “cold-blooded murder.”
Evidence of tension between McEuen and Martinez is substantiated by “numerous” 911 calls linked to the pair, as revealed by a search warrant. McEuen, aged 30, is further accused of taking some of Martinez’s possessions subsequent to the killing. This was attested to by a police investigator during a bond hearing on Wednesday.
During this hearing, McEuen’s legal team sought a reduction in their client’s $2 million bond, hoping to secure his release from Kaufman County Jail, located approximately 30 miles southeast of Dallas. The family of the deceased, however, vehemently objected to McEuen’s release, fearing he could return to his home which is in close proximity to where the bereaved Martinez family resides.
Numerous family members and supporters of the Martinez family attended the courtroom on Wednesday, some bearing signs urging against granting bail. A poignant statement came from Martinez’s daughter, April, who expressed her sorrow to WFAA-TV, “Now I can’t dance with him. And he took that away from me, he took my dad away from me, he took my dad away from my brother.”
The presiding judge decided to uphold the initial bond amount, which, as testified by McEuen’s father, the family could not afford. Following the alleged murder, McEuen was taken into custody after a standoff with a SWAT team. Currently charged with murder, the severity of the charges could potentially escalate to capital murder. This augmented charge would render McEuen eligible for the death penalty in Texas.
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