SAN ANTONIO — Kendall County District Attorney Nicole Bishop describes Rick Jimenez as a sophisticated serial burglar who has no remorse for his crimes. She landed a conviction and a 50-year prison sentence on the 18-year-old on Friday.
“He Googled and watched videos on how to break into houses,” Bishop said. “How to sell weapons. Guns he had stolen.”
A public records request to get copies of the video and images from his trial was released Thursday. The release contained the Google searches Bishop said helped Jimenez target homes in the Fair Oaks Ranch area. In addition, dramatic video of a police chase which yielded the arrests of Jimenez and suspect Samuel Lara III.
“In the video, you hear him say if he hadn’t been pushed off he would have stabbed him more,” Bishop said. “And that’s chilling.”
Kendall County’s prosecutor is talking about a 35-minute video where Lara and Jimenez were placed in the back of a patrol car following their arrest.
The crime happened in the 21300 block of Keeneland. Bishop said the suspects slipped into the victim’s home on March 23, 2016, through an open garage door. She said the boys, who were 15 years old at the time, searched the home.
According to Bishop, the homeowner heard a noise near the study at his bedroom. The suspects ambushed the 57-year-old man.
“He was attacked from behind. He was stabbed three times in the back,” Bishop said. “He was stabbed once in the face as he was turning to push the suspect off.”
Jimenez told investigators he stabbed the victim because the homeowner produced a gun. Bishop said she doesn’t buy the teen’s story for a second - especially after hearing Lara and Jimenez on the recording.
Lara: You kill him?
Jimenez: Huh?
Lara: You kill him?
Jimenez: No.
Lara: Oh.
Jimenez: It says attempted murder.
Lara: Huh?
Jimenez: Attempted Murder.
Lara: What that mean?
Jimenez: I tried. I mean I told them I did it.
The video shows the two trying to get on the same page with a story for the stabbing. They laughed about the chase while the victim was fighting for his life.
Jimenez: I stabbed him. (Laughs)
Lara: I didn’t think…Yeah, you could start to hear him screaming like "ahh, ohhhh." That’s how I knew you were stabbing him.
Jimenez: I regret it.
Lara: Right.
Jimenez: You think I should have stabbed him?
Lara: Huh?
Jimenez: I made it worth stabbing him?
Lara: I mean we got away without shots in our back.
Bishop said there was not an adequate remedy to prosecute the two as juveniles.
“At a certain point, that childhood innocence is gone,” Bishop said.
Lara’s trial date has not been set.