A mother who was upset and two of her family members attacked the man she thought ki*lled her daughter while she said he was “laughing at my face” during an emotional courtroom testimony in Texas on Tuesday.
On the second day of his murd*er trial in Houston, Frank DeLeon Jr., 19, was there. He is accused of shooting his ex-girlfriend Diamond Alvarez, 16, 22 times in January 2022, when chaos broke out.
Anna Machado, Alvarez’s mother, had just finished an impact statement at the trial when she got up from the stand and went straight to DeLeon. A bailiff stopped her.
While Machado was being held back, Alvarez’s uncle ran up to DeLeon and punched him several times.
A video from outside the courtroom shows that court staff tackled the man to the ground while DeLeon was led to a corner.
Machado attempted to rush to the defense of her relative but was blocked by DeLeon’s own mother, who began to shove her counterpart.
Judge Hazel B. Jones told the courtroom to end once the families were separated.
Someone in Machado’s family heard gunshots on January 11. She quickly ran outside to a field and found her daughter lying on the ground.
Alvarez had been given CPR, but it didn’t work.
DeLeon, who was 17 at the time, was quickly arrested.
After the fight, Machado said she felt bad about her outburst in court.
“That was wrong of me and that was wrong of us because we are not monsters,” Machado said outside of court after the fight.
“But it’s all hate because I want my daughter back, and what he did is horrible. Seeing my daughter there with him and knowing he did that while laughing at me was wrong, and I’m sorry for that.”
When Machado said that DeLeon was smiling while she was testifying, she called him out on how he looked during the trial.
It makes me sick to think about him. That would always be the case. Did he seem sorry in any way? No. “He laughed right in my face,” Machado said. “Like a joke. Life isn’t a joke. “Don’t make fun of my daughter.”
An uncle of Alvarez was arrested and handcuffed before being taken away.
He may or may not have been charged with the crime.
Alvarez found out that DeLeon was seeing someone else while they were still dating, which ended the relationship.
DeLeon had asked Alvarez to meet up at a park the night of the shooting.
KHOU reports that DeLeon missed the first day of his trial on Monday because he and his uncle were in an ATV accident on their property and had to be taken to the hospital for a head injury. He made his first court appearance on Tuesday.
DeLeon took a plea deal and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. He will be able to get out of jail on parole after serving half of his time.
