A San Antonio woman, Amanda Montoya, 50, received a five-year sentence for the fatal shooting of her boyfriend, Cesar Gallegos, 47, after a second-degree felony charge was elevated to first-degree because it involved family violence. Montoya, who opted for the judge to determine her punishment after the jury deadlocked on deciding her fate, will be serving time for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, as reported by the Express News.
The incident took place back in 2016, when Montoya and Gallegos were found drinking and dancing to Tejano music. According to the defense, Montoya inadvertently fired the weapon when Gallegos grabbed her after he had previously gone outside to investigate a noise alerted by a neighbor. The jury, having deliberated for 11 hours back on November 17, found her not guilty of murder but convicted her on the lesser assault charge. The reckoning of her punishment, however, left the jury in a stalemate, resulting in a mistrial declared by state District Judge Christine Del Prado on November 20, as per the Express News.
This legal back and forth is not the first of its kind in Montoya's case. Originally tried for murder in 2020, a hung jury was the outcome, and proceedings were further delayed due to the pandemic shutting down courts for 13 months. When deliberations resumed, defense attorneys pleaded for leniency, citing the incident as accidental and highlighting Montoya's love for Gallegos. "Cesar lost his life. Does she need to lose hers?" attorney Karen Corby asked the jury, according to the Express News.
Prosecutor Oscar Peña called on the jury to deliver a verdict that communicates a clear message, saying, "Your verdict will not only send a message to her but to the community. Today you get to decide what that means to you," he said in his closing argument. Yet again, the jury was left deadlocked, unable to come to a unanimous decision on an appropriate sentence, reported the Express-News. Del Prado will now be the one deciding Montoya's amount of time to be served, with a minimum of five years decided on, but with at least half of that to be served before eligibility for parole.
