Jury rejects self-defense, orders prison for slaying

SAN ANTONIO — Jurors on Friday rejected a self-defense claim and ordered a 20-year sentence for a San Antonio man who fatally shot his mother's fiance in 2012.

The jury took a little more than two hours to agree on the punishment — also rejecting an argument by attorneys for Joshua Orcasitas, 20, that he acted in sudden passion when he killed Roger Hernandez, 43.

A sudden passion finding would have lowered the potential sentence to between two and 20 years, instead of the five years to life he faced. Earlier Friday, the group took an hour and 15 minutes to find him guilty of murder.

Defense attorney Michael Gross contended Orcasitas shot Hernandez in the head only because he was being choked and feared for his life. He asked the jury to consider giving Orcasitas a two-year term.

But it was the defendant who followed Hernandez with a gun in his hand as Hernandez walked outside his home in the 1200 block of Schley Avenue, shooting him at close range, prosecutors Karl Alexander and Meredith Chacon said. By pursuing Hernandez, Orcasitas invalidated any self-defense claim, they argued.

“It was an intentional killing and not a result of sudden passion,” Alexander said.

Hernandez's sister, Dora Hernandez Huerta, said during the sentencing phase that her brother, who served prison time for sexual assault and had arrests for family violence, was a changed man who wanted to reach out to others and steer them away from crime.

“He said, 'When I get out, I'm going to do right,'” she said. “He reached out, but he reached out to the wrong family.”

gcontreras@express-news.net