BREAKING: Stephen Jennings Guilty of Capital Murder

SAN ANGELO, TX –– After four and a half years, the family of Eric Torrez saw justice served on Friday evening after a jury found Stephen Jennings guilty on all charges. Immediately following the reading of the verdict, Judge Weatherby sentenced Jennings to life in prison without parole.

The day began with opening statements from the defense and the prosecution in their final appeal to the jury.

For their part, the defense team focused on discrediting a large number of more than 200 exhibits submitted by the state. The defense asked the jury to ponder how many of them were connected to the defendant and could prove his involvement in the gruesome murder. During the trial, the defense only entered two exhibits as evidence –– the indictments of Kristen Jennings and David Navarro.

“They want to pile up all this stuff, but it does not add up,” said Defense Attorney Reeves.

A vast majority of the exhibits were introduced to help the jury piece together the evidence that proved a plan to lure Torrez to San Angelo became a capital murder offense. For example, a picture of the victim tied up with bruises to his face, in a white room, and with a blue tarp on the floor was corroborated by pictures taken at the scene during the three search warrants and witness testimony.

Reeves took his time trying to cast doubt on different areas of the trial and alluding to the fact that Jennings’ phone using the same cell tower down the street from his house for more than 12 consecutive hours that day did not mean he was in his home the entire time.

“Just because someone is talking or texting on a phone, doesn’t mean the registered owner is there too,” stated Reeves.

During his presentation, District Attorney Best pushed back on that claim reminding the jury that cellphones records and witness testimonies indicated Jennings was constantly on his phone as he worked to get the victim to San Angelo. Additional data also showed he was present at locations associated with the case just hours after the murder.

While working to create reasonable doubt, the defense questioned why no murder weapon was found or why the police had failed to find proof that Jennings had pulled the trigger. They also focused on the lack of forensic data that proved the victim was transported in the defendant’s car or that he may have not even been shot in the residence as the state claimed.

“They want you to believe there is evil intent,” but there is “nothing to connect my client to any of these crimes,” concluded Reeves.

Best would push back on this claim reminding the jury that Jennings went out of his way to ensure the evidence was obscured. From setting up the room before the victim’s arrival to cleaning up the home and getting rid of the evidence, and hiding the body in a different county, Jennings had tried to hide the truth.

“I don’t know who killed Eric, but I know Stephen lured, tortured, and kidnapped the victim,” said Best. “He lured Eric to his own home. What options did he have after everything he did?.”

Best asked the jury to remember the DNA evidence that proved Eric sustained an injury in that house and that by all indications that he was murdered in Jennings’ home. He asked the jury to “make reasonable inferences from the evidence” presented over four long days.

“He is just as criminally responsible as the other people involved in this,” concluded Best. “We ask that you find the defendant guilty on all counts.”

The jury would return with three guilty verdicts in just two hours after deliberating.

After waiving the typical Pre-Sentence Investigation conducted after capital murder trials, Jennings was sentenced to mandatory life in prison without parole for the murder charge, life in prison for the aggravated assault, and 20 years for tampering with evidence.

During the punishment phase of the trial, Torrez’s family took the stand to deliver victim impact statements. Torrez’s sister passionately reminded the defendant of the lives he had unequivocally altered with his actions. His mother would also take the stand and let her son’s killer know the "shock, trauma, sorrow, and disbelief" his actions caused her family.