SAN ANTONIO - The father of murder victim William Lopez III said the Bexar County district attorney is taking the wrong man to trial for the murder of his son.
“The D.A. is letting me down big time,” said the victim’s father, William Lopez Jr.
Lopez III, 22, was sitting in the back seat of a car when he was gunned down last August outside his apartment on the city’s northwest side.
According to police records, Lopez and the gunman, 22-year-old Victor Padilla, were involved in a large bar fight earlier in the evening.
Padilla was originally charged with Lopez’s murder but the charge was dropped a couple months later.
Padilla told investigators he fired the gun in defense of his friends after the car Lopez was riding in attempted to run over them.
Ronnie Castillo, 26, was the driver of the car. He was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The Bexar County District Attorney’s Office said since Castillo was committing a felony when Lopez was killed, by law he is responsible and can be charged with Lopez's murder, even though he did not pull the trigger.
Lopez Jr. said it all doesn’t seem right. He said he wants the man who fired the shots that killed his son to be held responsible.
"How can a father sleep at night knowing that someone killed his son and is out there walking around - a free man," Lopez asks.
Castillo is set to go to trial next month,
