SAN ANTONIO – Apparently frustrated by persistent cross examination from defense attorney Pat Hancock, a witness testifying for the state in the murder trial of Dustin Osborne, 20, suddenly tried to step down from the witness stand Wednesday.
“I’m done,” exclaimed Paige Gerber. “I don’t want to do this.”
“No ma’am, you sit down,” Judge Jefferson Moore admonished Gerber.
Earlier she had described a party at a South Side home hosted by Ralph Michael Lopez who she said had provided her and some friends with methamphetamines.
She said that her ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aguilar and Osborne, his nephew, showed up at the party and that Aguilar and Lopez began to argue.
“There was just words being said back and forth – yelling,” Gerber testified. “And then I heard gunshots.”
Shots fired by Osborne, according to witnesses.
Lopez was hit six times and died later at the hospital.
Hancock told the jury in his opening remarks on Tuesday that Osborne fired the shots in self-defense on orders from Aguilar.
Hancock questioned Gerber repeatedly about whether she had made more than one statement to police following the shooting.
“I don’t remember. I’m telling you, I don’t remember,” she sobbed. “I wasn’t sure.”
Aguilar is also facing murder charges in the case and is free on bond awaiting trial. For both men, a conviction could mean a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Testimony is expected to continue on Thursday in Judge Moore’s 186th District Court.