Two members of the Texas Mexican Mafia face life in federal prison after a federal jury in Del Rio found them guilty late Wednesday of racketeering acts, including murder.

Jurors convicted Javier “Javi” Guerrero, 23, of Uvalde and Victor Esquivel, 26, of Eagle Pass of conspiracy to violate the RICO statute through murder, solicitation of murder, drug trafficking and extortion.

The multi-agency probe led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also yielded guilty please from 10 others near Del Rio and Eagle Pass.

Guerrero also was convicted of conspiracy and violent crime in aid of racketeering for the murders of Christopher Mendez in Concan on Dec. 6, 2006, and Jose Damian Garza in Hondo on July 19, 2008.

Esquivel was found guilty of conspiracy and violent crime in aid of racketeering for Garza’s killing.

Guerrero and Esquivel face sentencing Dec. 12.

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Enraged that his girlfriend had been two-timing him while he was in jail for a misdemeanor charge, James Clayton Kelly set in motion a series of confrontations four years ago that led to the other man’s murder, prosecutors said Wednesday as testimony at his trial began.

Kelly, 24, isn’t believed to have been the triggerman on the night of June, 7, 2007, when North Side Quiznos employee Nathan Ramirez, 20, was fatally shot outside the restaurant, prosecutors Miguel Najera and Ashley Botard told jurors during an opening statement.

But under Texas’ law of parties, he’s just as guilty for aiding or encouraging the shooting, they suggested.

Co-defendant John William McBurnett, the alleged shooter, was convicted of murder last year and sentenced to 40 years in prison. A second co-defendant, John “Bubba” Rodriguez, has agreed to testify for prosecutors at Kelly’s trial in exchange for a 15-year sentence. He is the one who brought the gun that night at Kelly’s urging, prosecutors said.

Kelly’s girlfriend at the time, Melissa Ramos, is awaiting trial on a charge of manslaughter connected to the shooting for making inflammatory — and allegedly false — statements that Ramirez had forced himself on her.

Kelly recruited friends to help beat and rob Ramirez on the night before the shooting, Najera told jurors. They locked him in a vehicle, confronted him at gunpoint and made him crawl out a window after taking his money, Najera said,

“Unfortunately, this is not the end of the case,” Najera said. Kelly, he said, “was not done with the victim.”

The next night, Najera said, Kelly and four others drove to the Quiznos to retrieve Kelly’s clothes that his girlfriend had lent to Ramirez while Kelly had been in jail. A fight broke out and an assistant manager at the eatery pulled out a gun and fired a warning shot in the air, ordering the group to leave, witnesses said.

As the SUV containing the men was leaving the back parking lot, a single shot was fired, hitting Ramirez and severing his spine.

“Grab the gun and shoot!” Kelly was alleged to have yelled before the shot was fired, prosecutors said.

But of the five in the SUV that night, Kelly was in the minority, having never been in a gang, defense attorney Michael Sawyer countered during his own opening statement. His client was certainly in a bad mood that night, but all he wanted was a fistfight, Sawyer said.

“Clay Kelly did not ask anyone to bring a gun or to shoot Nathan Ramirez,” he said. “Because of an impulsive, stupid act by John McBurnett as a reaction of a gun pointed at him … a life was taken.”

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A teenager accused of killing a man with a steak knife in April will be tried as an adult, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Seth Andrew Yates, 16, was moved to Bexar County Jail. He is charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of George Michael Izer, 59. Bail was set at $250,000.

“Because of the seriousness of this offense … and the background of this teen, I’ve determined he is sufficiently sophisticated and should be treated as an adult,” state District Judge Carmen Kelsey said.

Izer, a retired U.S. Army sergeant, was stabbed more than 40 times in his apartment in the 2600 block of Nacogdoches Road. His pants were around his ankles and a note with the word “fag” written in blood was stabbed into his groin.

Officers followed a bloody trail from Izer’s apartment to Yates’ home nearby.

Yates was described as having a somewhat troubled past and above-average intelligence but lacking in social skills.

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More than six months after the city recorded its first homicide of the year, San Antonio police announced the arrest Tuesday night of a suspect in the slaying.

Joshua Reyes, 19, was charged with murder in connection with the Jan. 4 shooting of Brian Sendejo, 23. Bond was set at $250,000.

The victim, shot once in the neck, was pronounced dead around 3:30 p.m. at New Braunfels Avenue and Highland Boulevard, two houses away from his home in the 1000 block of East Highland.

Before the shooting, Sendejo had warned several people that he was going to meet someone at the bus stop near his parents’ home “and that if he had not returned in 15 minutes, something (would have) happened,” a police report stated.

Minutes after Sendejo issued his warning, family members heard a single gunshot, police said.

Investigators at the time believed they knew the identity of the man Sendejo met with and described the suspect as being in his 20s.

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A 9-year-old boy and his parents had just returned to their West Side home after going to the movies Saturday night when gunmen ambushed the trio, shooting the boy’s mother to death and injuring his father, according to officials and family friends.

Priscilla Vidaurri, 32, saw the shooters first, friends said, and told her husband to run and save their child. Her husband, Henry Vidaurri, 31, reportedly pushed their son, Damon, out of the way, causing him to skin his knees but saving him from gunfire.

But a barrage of bullets struck the Vidaurris, killing Priscilla and seriously injuring her husband. Friends say the couple’s son was still in front of their home in the 400 block of Beverly Drive when his mother died in the street.

His father was taken to University Hospital, where he remained Monday, officials said.

One of Henry Vidaurri’s older brothers was asleep inside the house when shots were fired, but he thought they were fireworks, according to friends and the police report.

The shooters fled in a dark-colored vehicle, according to a San Antonio Police Department report.

“It’s so horrible that their son was there,” said Randy Sanchez II, a family friend, on Monday. “He’s going to have to deal with that the rest of his life.”

SAPD Sgt. Steven Grover, speaking to reporters at the scene Saturday night, said the Vidaurris appeared to have been targeted. He said the incident may have been gang-related, and police continue to investigate the slaying.

Friends of the couple, who met at Lanier High School and wed in 2003, have a hard time believing they may have been involved with gangs, but acknowledged the Vidaurris may have known gang members.

Henry Vidaurri went on two tours of duty in Iraq as an Army gunner and had graduated from the University of the Incarnate Word with a degree in education and works at USAA.

His wife worked for Bank of America and was working to complete her degree at the University of Texas at San Antonio, according to friends.

Both Vidaurris were athletic and liked basketball, which they would play with Damon.

“He’s a very, very good father and loved Priscilla,” Sanchez said.

Funeral arrangements are pending, friends said.

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San Antonio police detained a man suspected of fatally shooting a man inside a home on the far Northwest Side early Saturday morning.

Aaron Michael Dewall, 33, is set to be booked in the Bexar County Jail on one count of murder. A judge set bail at $200,000.

Neighbors called 9-1-1 around 3:45 a.m. Saturday, when they reported hearing gunshots fired in the 9200 block of Deer Village, police said. Arriving officers found Dewall sitting on a curb in front of a home in a cul-de-sac, police said. He didn’t say much, according to officers, but was detained while police secured a warrant to search a house believed to be his.

Inside the home, on the floor of a bedroom, police said they found a man, shot to death. The victim’s name and age have not yet been released, pending notification of his next of kin, officials said.

There were numerous weapons found inside the home, according to police, but it was not immediately clear if officers found the murder weapon. Police would not say how many times or where the victim had been shot. According to officers, the victim was reportedly living in Austin and came to San Antonio to visit relatives.

A motive in the slaying was not immediately known.

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A San Antonio man convicted of murder last month for gunning down the young founder of a local ministry was sentenced to life in prison Friday.

Alexander Johnson, 20, testified at the daylong sentencing hearing for the May 2010 slaying of Josue Barea-Torres, 19. He’d asked state District Judge Maria Teresa Herr to determine his punishment.

“Josue’s in my dreams, and sometimes my nightmares,” Johnson testified. “I ask God why I was put in this situation where I felt I had to protect my life.”

Jurors rejected Johnson’s self-defense claim last month. He testified then, too, that he panicked after Barea-Torres pointed a gun at him. No other witness said Barea-Torres had a gun, prosecutors David Martin and Alysha Bissell pointed out.

The real story, prosecutors have argued, is that Johnson was in a fury after learning a co-worker he had a crush on was dating someone else. Barea-Torres was the other man’s best friend.

Witnesses said Johnson bragged of selling marijuana and being affiliated with the Crips street gang. Prosecutors displayed on the courtroom wall a large photo of a “B.K.” tattoo on the inside of the defendant’s lip. The initials stand for “Blood Killer,” Martin suggested.

In addition, prosecutors said, ballistics testing linked an assault rifle found in Johnson’s room to bullets shot at a party he had been ejected from in an earlier incident.

Johnson denied any involvement in that shooting. He also denied owning brass knuckles, consuming alcohol or being seen by his mother taking a large gun out of his house about a week before the murder.

Prosecutors later showed him multiple Facebook photos of him drinking alcohol. Testimony from his own parents contradicted his statements about the weapons.

“He just can’t tell the truth,” Martin said during closing arguments. “Mercy is for someone who accepts their wrong.”

Defense attorney Mario Treviño joined Johnson’s family and friends in asking for leniency. The defendant’s father described him as someone who suick up for outcasts who were bullied in school.

“He’s like a big teddy bear,” Alden Johnson Jr. said. “He’s basically a big kid at heart.”

Barea-Torres was known for being straight-laced, attending church multiple times a week and for preaching to gang members about giving up violence, friends and family testified. He was a co-founder of WDOG Legacy, a ministry whose acronym stands for Warrior Disciples of God.

“He had a passion,” said ministry co-founder David Terrazas, for reaching out to those in the inner city and “helping them move into a new lifestyle.”

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Police arrested two men late Wednesday and charged them with capital murder in connection with the fatal beating of Gilbert Fernandez, 18.

Erich Karl Ramirez and Dillan William Stanley, both 18, were each charged with one count of capital murder. A judge set bail at $1 million each.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Ramirez and Stanley convinced Fernandez to meet them on Timber Walk Street around 1 a.m. Monday, then beat him with a hammer and metal baseball bat in the head and neck repeatedly. The pair stole $100 from his wallet, which they split between themselves, the affidavit said.

The two got in Ramirez’s pickup and deliberately ran over Fernandez’s legs as they fled the scene, the affidavit said.

A witness saw the truck run over Fernandez, and called police, the affidavit said.

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Condemned prisoner John Balentine won a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court, about an hour before he could have been taken to the Texas death chamber for killing three teenagers at a home in Amarillo more than 13 years ago.

The high court said it stopped the lethal injection to review a petition from Balentine’s lawyer that contended his legal help at trial and in early stages of his appeal was deficient.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused a similar appeal, and Balentine’s lawyer wanted the Supreme Court to look at that refusal.

Last week, the high court agreed to review an Arizona case about whether a convicted offender is entitled to competent legal help in the early stages of an appeal, and Balentine’s lawyer cited that case.

Balentine, 42, would have been the fifth inmate executed this year in Texas. Another execution is set for this evening.

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Although Fabiana Ortiz Rincon, 37, rarely spoke about strife with the man she had recently married, her aunt suspected trouble and gave her advice hours before Rincon was stabbed to death early Sunday.

“I told her, ‘Don’t be fighting with your husband — he’s been drinking, so just ignore him and go to bed if he tries to argue with you,’” said Guadalupe Alvarez, 61.

Rincon told her aunt not to worry, that everything would be fine.

She had called Alvarez around 3:15 a.m. Sunday to make sure she got home safely from a wedding for one of Rincon’s daughters at her East Side home Saturday night.

Hours after the two women spoke, San Antonio police were called to a shed behind Rincon’s house in the 800 block of Denver Boulevard, where another daughter found Rincon’s body around 10 a.m. Sunday.

Police are looking for Rincon’s husband, Hermenegildo Torñez, who was seen leaving the home in Rincon’s red 1995 Chevrolet Suburban with the Texas license plate SMT344.

Officials believe Torñez, 28, may have been headed for Acapulco, Mexico, his hometown, and authorities throughout the state were given a description of the vehicle and suspect Sunday.

Rincon and the three children still living with her: Angela, 5; Jackie, 13; and Rafael, 18, were going to meet Alvarez at church Sunday morning and bring the aunt some leftover wedding cake.

Instead, Rafael called and summoned her to the home, saying Rincon was dead. She had been stabbed several times in the chest, neck and jaw, according to San Antonio police. Officers found three knives in Rincon’s home and near her body.

“My mother will be missed,” said Reina Tovar, 23, another of Rincon’s daughters. “All of her six children deeply love her with all of our hearts.”

Relatives were shocked that Rincon’s new husband was a suspect in her death.

“I remember he cried when he read his vows at their wedding,” said Rosa Solis, Rincon’s aunt. “I thought he loved her so much.”

But Alvarez said she knew Torñez could be jealous at times and said Rincon didn’t divulge much about her relationship.

“Last week, she started crying and said she didn’t feel like she had any support,” Alvarez said. “She told us she was having problems with her husband, but she didn’t want to talk about it. She would keep things to herself.”

Relatives at her house Saturday night, however, told police the couple had fought all night.  Guests left around 3 a.m., according to police, and a neighbor saw Rincon watering her yard around 8 a.m. Sunday.

Rincon’s cell phone was receiving calls from a Mexican phone number while police were processing the crime scene, a police incident report states.

Family members will care for Rincon’s three youngest children, Alvarez said, returning the favor to a woman known for her generosity toward others.

“She would help anyone with anything,” Alvarez said, “and would never leave her children alone. She was a very good mother.”

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