Undocumented immigrant found guilty in killing of San Antonio college student

Gene Vargas, father of Jared Vargas, is embraced by neighbor Yolanda Martinez following the guilty verdict Tuesday against Ernesto Esquivel-Garcia, who killed the younger Vargas last year. Gene Vargas, father of Jared Vargas, is embraced by neighbor Yolanda Martinez following the guilty verdict Tuesday against Ernesto Esquivel-Garcia, who killed the younger Vargas last year. Photo: Bob Owen /Staff Photographer Photo: Bob Owen /Staff Photographer Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Undocumented immigrant found guilty in killing of San Antonio college student 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

A Bexar County jury found an undocumented Mexican immigrant guilty of murder Tuesday in the brutal killing of a San Antonio college student whose body was set afire in a North Side apartment.

Ernesto Esquivel-Garcia was 20 last year when he was arrested and accused of killing Jared Vargas, also 20, a Northwest Vista College student who wanted to pursue cybersecurity studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Vargas had been reported missing after he left work at Bowl & Barrel at The Rim and firefighters found his body three days later, on June 18, 2018, while extinguishing a blaze at a Esquivel-Garcia’s apartment in the 7900 block of Jones Maltzberger.

RELATED: Tributes pour in for missing San Antonio student found dead in North Side apartment

Esquivel-Garcia and Vargas had briefly worked together, according to testimony in the trial that began last week.

Initially, the defendant told authorities that the scorched apartment was not his and that he lived directly above it, testimony showed. Witnesses said they saw him moving his possessions over the Father’s Day weekend to a vacant unit in the apartment complex, and that he claimed apartment managers had instructed him to move there, though they had not.

Prosecutors Brandon Ramsey and Jordan Brown argued that Esquivel-Garcia lied numerous times to police, first telling them he didn’t even know Vargas, knew nothing about a fire, and was asleep when it started. They pointed out in their closing arguments that Esquivel-Garcia's wife told police that her husband told her he killed Vargas for his car.

Defense attorney George Shaffer admitted his client did not tell the truth to authorities at the beginning. Shaffer said Vargas called Esquivel-Garcia that night looking for drugs, and that his client killed Vargas in self-defense, pointing out in his closing arguments that Esquivel-Garcia told police he believed Vargas was going to sexually assault him.

Shaffer recalled a recorded interview with investigators for the jury: “What did the defendant tell the detectives? He said, ‘He (Vargas) was going to try and molest me. I thought he was going to rape me. I don’t do that.’ That’s self-defense, folks,” Shaffer told the panel.

Ramsey urged jurors to recall the brutality of the killing.

RELATED: Body allegedly burned by former co-worker in S.A. was missing student, officials say

“Does a person who by his own words strangles someone with a charging cable, then wraps the head in tape, then wraps the head in a chef shirt, are they acting intentionally?” he asked the jury. “Then, he stabbed him a couple of times. Is that intentional or reckless? Was it self-defense?”

Esquivel-Garcia was charged with murder, but the jury was able to consider manslaughter and self-defense as well. It took the panel nearly three hours to find him guilty of murder.

State District Judge Kevin O'Connell released the jury and said Esquivel-Garcia will be sentenced at a later date after a pre-sentence investigation hearing. He faces up to life in prison.

Elizabeth Zavala covers county and state courts in San Antonio. Read her on our free site, mySA.com, and on our subscriber site, ExpressNews.com. | ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863