State rests its case in day 14 in El Gallito trial

HARLINGEN, Texas ( ValleyCentral ) — The state rested its case on day 14 in the murder trial against Salomon Campos Jr.

Campos is accused of kidnapping and murdering his uncle, a well-known attorney, Ernesto “El Gallito” Gonzalez.

Harlingen PD Investigator Manuel  Tovar returned to the witness stand Friday morning.

The defense continued to question Tovar on why he did not further investigate other suspects at the time.

Two other witnesses who testified Friday were expert witnesses and forensic scientists at the Weslaco Department of Public Safety lab. In their testimonies, they said there were no fingerprints or DNA matches on the items found near Gonzales’ remains.

Since the state rested its case earlier than anticipated, the jury was dismissed and the defense will not begin calling witnesses until Monday morning.

Closing arguments are expected to be heard early next week.

Background

For three weeks, the court heard testimonies from witnesses including Gonzalez’s family members, police officers and experts.

Throughout the trial, several witnesses went through multiple days of testifying.

Gonzalez’s sister, Alice Campos, who is also Campos’s mother, was the first witness to give the jury an inside perspective on the family conflict.

In June 2017, Gonzalez went missing shortly after filing protective orders for himself and Alice against several family members.

One of the family members named in the protective order was Mary Ann Villafana, “El Gallito’s” other sister.

Last week, Villafana testified and was considered the main person of interest in the case by both the state and the defense.

Two Harlingen Police Department Investigators, Scott Vega and Manuel Tovar, had also spent several days on the witness stand, being questioned by the defense for the missing evidence in the investigation.

Vega and Tovar were questioned over several interview recordings in this case that were deleted. Both said the missing evidence was lost due to a software crash at the Harlingen Police Department.

Both investigators were also accused of not properly investigating the other suspects at the time.

Throughout the trial, no witnesses were able to say with certainty that Campos committed the murder. However, the prosecutors built their case around the evidence of El Gallito’s remains found on Campos’s property.

Campos had admitted to following El Gallito and GPS location data that placed their phones at the same place the day El Gallito went missing.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KVEO-TV.