UPDATED: Abilene man who shot Paul John Delacruz sentenced for murder

An Abilene man was sentenced Thursday afternoon to 30 years in prison for the murder of Paul John Delacruz, 35, who was shot through an apartment door during a heated argument.

Arthur Jesse Gallegoz, 24, was also sentenced to eight years each for two counts of aggravated assault for injuring Catrina Messer and Derrick Compton in the same shooting on Feb. 1, 2022.

"This was a tough case," 350th District Judge Thomas Wheeler said as he delivered the jury's sentences.

The sentences will run concurrently, and Arthur Gallegoz will receive credit for time served. Murder is punishable by five to 99 years or life in prison, and aggravated assault carries a possible sentence of two to 20 years.

He was being held Thursday evening in Taylor County Jail, pending his transfer to prison, according to online jail records.

Arthur Gallegoz admitted he shot Delacruz, but he claimed that it was self-defense and he was protecting his sister when he fired through the door of an apartment his victim had fled to.

They were embroiled in an altercation that may have started over a parking spot and turned violent. Messer and Compton were seriously injured in the same shooting.

A jury of seven women and five men saw surveillance video of a figure pointing the gun at Delacruz and firing.

Jurors took about two and a half hours to find Arthur Gallegoz guilty. They began deliberating just after 10:45 a.m. and returned with three guilty verdicts by just after 1:10 p.m. Thursday.

Not long after, the punishment phase of the trial began in 350th District Court. Just after 3 p.m. Thursday, Jurors retired to deliberate on punishment verdicts. They returned just before 5 p.m. with verdicts.

Arthur Gallegoz sat calmly and unaffected for much of the trial this week in 350th District Court while prosecutors Erin Stamey and Dan Joiner attempted to demonstrate his guilt.

More: 'Getting bad back here': Jury sees body cam video in Gallegoz murder trial

'Not wildly shooting'

Arthur Gallegoz sat in court Thursday morning without eyeglasses on as he awaited the arrival of the jury. When the jury entered the courtroom, he immediately placed eyeglasses on his face. His eyesight and whether he actually needs glasses has been a point of contention in the trial.

As Taylor County Assistant District Attorney Erin Stamey began her closing argument Thursday morning, she told the jury to "judge the credibility of the witnesses."

She went through the timeline of the video and reminded jurors, "The defendant admitted to it," referring to the shooting of Delacruz.

"It is reckless, absolutely, to fire into someone's apartment" as Gallegoz did when he allegedly shot Catrina Messer and Derrick Compton, Stamey said.

She ended by reminding jurors there were "five casings, five shots, five bullet wounds. That's not wildly shooting. That's intentional."

Confirmation bias

Defense attorney John Eric Nickols became impassioned Thursday in court as he gave his closing argument.

While he said, "There's things in the case that don't add up," he placed the blame on Abilene detectives. He alleged they had confirmation bias.

Nickols stressed that for two and a half years, detectives never performed a gunpowder residue test on Delacruz's hands and to him that demonstrated confirmation bias.

Nickols' defense relied heavily on a self-defense theory. He contends it could have been confirmed if detectives had found gunpowder residue on Delacruz's hands after the autopsy.

He also alleged that detectives should have authorized a secondary search of Delacruz's apartment to look again for a gun, which was never found in the initial search.

Nickols went on to assert that Delacruz was "high on meth, ranting and raving," despite conceding that a "verbal provocation is not enough to shoot someone."

The defense attorney ended his closing argument, saying, "We know Arthur fired through the door," but he wanted the jury to find him not guilty.

'Flee, lie, hide evidence'

Joiner, an assistant D.A., jumped immediately from his seat when it was his turn to deliver the final argument in Arthur Gallegoz's trial.

"Because of a cup of water, that man changed more than three lives!" Joiner told jurors.

In the video shown Tuesday, the jury saw Delacruz throw a cup of water that hit Gallegoz and likely contributed to the events that ended in Delacruz's death.

Joiner went on to describe Delacruz's death, Compton's injuries and Messer's paralysis, as well as the effect that it had on all of the families involved.

Joiner told the jury that Arthur Gallegoz's sister, Destiny Gallegoz, "was up for a fight," but that "we are not a self-help, Wild-West society." Joiner believed the Gallegoz family should have called the police instead of reacting to the incident.

Joiner said the Gallegoz family's reaction to the murder was to "flee, lie, hide evidence; that's their response."

The prosecutor said, "They've had a plan. For two years, they've created this defense," referring to assertions of self-defense.

Joiner picked apart the defense strategy of claiming self-defense.

"As they go up the stairs, they are not entitled to self-defense," he said.

The prosecutor was referring to Arthur Gallegoz and his sister, Destiny Gallegoz, running up the apartment stairs after Delacruz had thrown a water bottle at them and then retreated into his apartment.

Joiner then asked the jury to find Arthur Gallegoz guilty and ended on an analogy of encountering a bear in the woods.

The prosecutor said you can be angry, and you can be scared. But "you don't chase the bear."

More: UPDATED: Jury selection underway for Abilene man on trial for murder and assaults

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: UPDATED: Abilene man who shot Paul John Delacruz sentenced for murder