SAN ANTONIO – Recordings of telephone conversations made while Jesus Rivera, 21, was jailed in connection with the murder of Ryan Yearley, 21, were played for the jury Friday by a Bexar County Jail employee as the second week of Rivera's murder trial neared an end.
In those calls, Rivera asked relatives not to involve a friend who was a potential witness in the murder case.
Rivera claimed that he shot Yearley, who was his sister's boyfriend, in self-defense on Thanksgiving 2012 after Yearley came at him with a knife.
Prosecutors say that the call shows that Rivera is guilty of murder and not self-defense.
Another witness who once worked with Rivera testified about an incident of workplace violence involving Rivera in July 2012.
"I turned around to see what had happened and I saw he had hit me with a shovel," Maximo Lira Camacho testified through an interpreter.
He said that Rivera continued the attack and also slashed him with a box cutter.
When police were called, Camacho said that Rivera ran.
Prosecutors suggested that was a familiar pattern, noting that Rivera also ran after he shot and killed Yearley.
Rivera testified on Thursday that he only ran because he was "confused and afraid."
Closing arguments and jury deliberations now are expected on Monday in Judge Lorina Rummel's 144th District Court.