Twenty-Two Year Old Convicted Of Murder In 2014 Shooting Of Carlos Fernandez
Trejo and Fernandez entered an alley between the trailer homes in the area where they were searching for the gun, when Trejo pulled a .32 handgun and shot Fernandez in the back of the head, in apparent retaliation for the earlier shooting.
Michael Anthony Trejo, 22, was convicted this week of murder for the shooting death of Carlos Fernandez, 24, and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Testimony at the trial, which began on November 27, had witnesses describing that on the night of April 14, 2014, Trejo and Fernandez were searching together for a gun that had been involved in an earlier shooting episode in which a Fernandez’s cousin, Christopher Vicuna, had fired a shotgun at two juveniles, described as friends of Trejo’s. (Vicuna was later convicted of this offense and is currently serving a prison sentence for Aggravated Assault.)
Trejo and Fernandez entered an alley between the trailer homes in the area where they were searching for the gun, when Trejo pulled a .32 handgun and shot Fernandez in the back of the head, in apparent retaliation for the earlier shooting.
Trejo then drove to Williamson County where he crashed his vehicle and then fled on foot. Trejo was subsequently arrested for leaving the scene of an accident and possession of Xanax pills that were located in the vehicle.
Witnesses in Kyle had in the meantime provided law enforcement with Trejo’s name as a potential suspect in the Fernandez shooting. Investigators located Trejo in the Williamson County Jail, where he was interviewed and denied any involvement with the shooting or being in the neighborhood that night, although patrol car videos from the earlier incident involving Vicuna clearly showed Trejo as being present.
Kyle police searched along the path from the accident in Georgetown to where Trejo was ultimately arrested by Georgetown PD. During this search, they located Trejo’s handgun, which was later forensically matched to a casing located at the murder scene and a projectile removed from Fernandez’s head at autopsy.
The jury convicted Trejo of murder after five and a half hours of deliberation. After a short punishment hearing, during which Fernandez’s family members testified, but no prior criminal history was introduced, the jury sentenced Trejo to 25 years in prison.
Hays County Criminal District Attorney Wes Mau recognized the work of Chief Felony Prosecutor Ben Moore, who handled the trial with Assistant District Attorney Trey Thompson before 22nd Judicial District Judge Bruce Boyer.
He also thanked the lead investigator, Kyle Police Detective Joseph Swonke, along with other members of the Kyle Police Department, the Hays and Williamson Counties Sheriff’s Departments, the Georgetown Police Department, and the Department of Public Safety Crime Lab for their work in bringing Trejo to justice.
