A Jourdanton man has been handed a life sentence for the 2023 murder of 23-year-old Jorge Erosa, closing a grim chapter in a double-homicide case that shook Atascosa County.
Jurors sentenced Samuel Ponce to life in prison on Tuesday after the punishment phase of his trial in Atascosa County. The case traces back to a pair of early-morning shootings on August 21, 2023, that left two young men dead.
The 81st Judicial District Attorney’s Office said Ponce was sentenced on June 2 to life in prison, according to News4SanAntonio. Prosecutors told jurors they tied Ponce to the killing through a mix of security-camera footage, social-media communications, witness testimony, ballistic analysis and the recovery of the firearm used in the shooting.
Court docket shows multiple charges
The official 81st/218th District Court trial docket lists two separate murder cases against Samuel Xavier Ponce (case nos. 23-11-0314-CRA and 23-11-0315-CRA). It also shows a later “assault on a public servant” case linked to the period when he was awaiting trial, according to the Atascosa trial docket.
What happened on August 21, 2023
Local coverage at the time reported that Erosa, 23, was found shot outside a home in the 500 block of Elm Street in Jourdanton in the early-morning hours of August 21, 2023, and was transported to a San Antonio hospital where he later died, according to reporting by the San Antonio Express-News. Less than half an hour later, authorities say a second shooting in nearby Pleasanton left 18-year-old Ross Cruz Jr. dead, and Ponce was arrested later that day, the contemporaneous reports say.
Prosecutors’ view and the sentence
During the punishment phase, prosecutors told the court Ponce had committed another homicide the same night and that he assaulted a jailer while awaiting trial, according to the News4SanAntonio report. The life term brings finality to the Atascosa County prosecution in the Erosa slaying; court records and local reporting show the double-homicide case has been handled across multiple county agencies since 2023.
