SAN ANTONIO – While responding to a call for criminal mischief, Universal City police officer Clinton Halbadier noticed a similarity between the son of the woman who made the call and an artist's sketch of a rape suspect posted in the department.
"When I observed the defendant, I noticed immediately in my mind seeing that picture every day. He resembled that person almost identical," Halbadier testified during the trial of Alexander Castro.
Castro, 26, is on trial for the kidnapping and rape of a 14-year-old Schertz girl on April 8, 2009.
"I noticed the receding hairline on the top of his head was present on the sketch," Halbadier said. "The shape of his nose. The shape of his eyes."
The sketch was created by a police artist based on a description of her attacker the teen had given police.
She also described a truck driven by her abductor.
Halbadier said a truck matching the girl's description was parked in Castro's driveway.
"The way the truck appeared on the picture was very similar to the truck that was sitting in that driveway," Halbadier said.
Castro was later arrested and tried on kidnapping and sexual assault charges in Guadalupe County. That trial ended in a mistrial in 2010 and the case was transferred to Bexar County on a change of venue.
The state rested their case in Bexar County on Friday.
The trial will resume on Monday before visiting Judge Bert Richardson.
Castro is among the witnesses expected to testify.
If he is found guilty, Castro faces a maximum punishment of life in prison.