The saga of the tragic murder of former News 4 San Antonio employee Christopher Olivarez has reached a new chapter as 22-year-old Sebastian Lee Hernandez pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbing back in 2021. Hernandez entered the plea on Monday in the 186th State District Court in Bexar County, MySanAntonio.com reports. As of yet, the terms of Hernandez's plea agreement have not been disclosed to the public.

The conviction comes nearly three years after the harrowing incident, wherein Olivarez was found dead at his Westside San Antonio residence. The ensuing investigation unveiled that Hernandez, acquainted with the victim, had left a DNA sample matching the evidence from the crime scene and the murder weapon. Despite initially lacking sufficient evidence to hold Hernandez, officials arrested him without incident on June 29, 2022, at his Central San Antonio home after lab results corroborated the DNA match, according to the same report from MySanAntonio.com.

During the earlier stages of the investigation, as News 4 San Antonio indicated, Hernandez had cooperated with detectives, providing a statement and voluntarily submitting a DNA sample. "He's been very cooperative with our detectives," Sgt. Washington Moscoso told News 4 San Antonio.

Ahead of the plea deal, law enforcement had struggled to pinpoint a suspect despite offering a considerable $17,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. It wasn't until a tip led them to Hernandez, that authorities were able to make a pivotal breakthrough. "They did know each other but I'm not going to get into what their relationship was but they were acquaintances at the time of the murder,"  Moscoso added in a statement. While the full details of their relationship remain undisclosed, this connection was crucial to the direction of the case.

Olivarez, who had worked as an account executive at News 4 and Fox29 between 2012-2016, left a lasting impact on the San Antonio TV news community. His unexpected death shook colleagues and viewers alike. With Hernandez's guilty plea, there may be a semblance of closure on the horizon, although true healing for those affected by the tragedy is a far more complex endeavor. The court has yet to schedule a sentencing date following the conclusion of a presentencing investigation.