An Ector County jury Thursday deliberated about three hours before rendering a “not guilty” verdict in the case of a West Odessa man accused of purposely hitting a teenager twice with his truck last spring.
Homero Villa Aguilar, 25, was facing one count of injury to a child with intent to cause serious bodily injury in the 244th Ector County District Court.
According to Assistant Ector County District Attorneys Kevin Schulz and Henry Eckels, Aguilar purposely ran down Homero Carreón Jr. 15, twice on April 17, 2021, after a violent fight with Carreón’s sister, Layza, Aguilar’s common-law wife.
Aguilar, 25, testified he struck Carreón with his truck just once and only because the teenager was pointing a gun at him.
Carreón testified he’d spent the day on his family’s property on South Blackfoot Avenue in West Odessa tending to their roosters, hens, horses and other animals.
That evening, Carreón said he was returning from the family’s stables when he heard yelling from the recreational vehicle his sister and Aguilar shared.
When he stepped inside, Carreón testified he saw the bathroom door was broken, a pot was on the ground and his sister, Layza, was crying. She told him Aguilar had hit her.
A short time later, Carreón decided to walk to his house a short distance away on the same property, leaving Layza in the travel trailer with their mother, Mercedez, and his 3-year-old niece, Mialeyza.
As he started to head home, he heard Aguilar’s truck suddenly accelerate and the next thing he knew, he was being hit by it.
“It hit my left leg and I bounced against the RV,” Carreón said.
Aguilar, who hit the RV with the truck as well, threw the truck into reverse and as he tried to run away, Aguilar struck him again, this time pinning him against the RV, Carreón said. Aguilar then fled the scene.
He spent months in the hospital and going through physical therapy and now has to wear a colostomy bag.
During closing arguments Thursday, defense attorney Israel Guardiola warned jurors that empathy might lead them to believe Carreón’s story, but there were several inconsistencies in the stories Carreón’s family told authorities that night and what they said on the stand. For example, Layza Carreón told deputies Aguilar hit her brother once.
“Since it was such an egregious act, she wouldn’t have said he only did it once,” Guardiola said.
He reminded the jurors that although the family denied owning a gun, there’s a photo on Homer Carreón Senior’s Facebook page of him with a holster on his hip and a gun in it. The picture was taken four months before the incident.
“If someone hits you, Dad’s going to come running. Mom’s going to come running and your brother’s going to come running and unfortunately in this case, brother brought a gun,” Guardiola said.
Schulz began closing arguments showing the jurors the body cam video of one of the first deputies on the scene. In it, a nearly hysterical Layza Carreón and her equally emotional mother tell the deputies what they witnessed.
The prosecutor told the jurors that the defense would have them believe that in the minutes after Homero Jr. was hit, they stopped, hid the gun and concocted a story about what happened in order to get vengeance against Aguilar.
“The people in this situation are losing their cookies,” Schulz said, pointing to the video.
To think they came up with such a story, is “fundamentally unreasonable,” Schulz said.
Schulz asked the jury to think how they would react if they thought someone they loved was dying and if they’d be able to recall every second and every minute that happened immediately beforehand.
Layza Carreón, in that moment, simply forgot to tell the first deputies on the scene her brother was hit twice, Schulz said. She felt the first hit, went outside and saw the second hit, he said. Her father, however, immediately told deputies his son was hit twice, Schulz said.
“How do we know he knew what he did was wrong?” Schulz asked of Aguilar. “He ran away.”
Schulz reminded jurors that Homero Sr. testified that it was Aguilar who brought the gun to his house in December 2020 and it was Aguilar who took the picture of him wearing it on his hip. The only gun Homero Sr. has was bought two months after the incident and he brought the receipt to court to prove it.
Schulz also questioned Aguilar’s story of running into a friend at Pilot and getting a ride to Mexico. He suggested Aguilar called his buddy after leaving his truck at his aunt’s because he knew it would be easier to find his truck and him if they were out on the road.
Why would Aguilar hit Carreón? Schulz asked.
Because he was drunk, possibly high and angry, Schulz said.
Schulz told the jurors there’s a word for Aguilar’s story and it starts with a “B” and has an “S” in it.
“Let’s do some justice,” Schulz urged the jury.
All of the jurors declined to comment as they left the courthouse Thursday evening.
Judge James Rush presided over the trial.
