San Antonio man charged with wife’s 1999 murder gets 20-year sentence in plea deal

A 24-year-old murder case has come to an end after a San Antonio man took a plea deal.

Roy Hernandez was arrested and indicted in 2017 for the 1999 murder of his wife Dedra Salinas.

Salinas disappeared in 1999 but investigators did not find her body until six years later.

Her remains were found underneath a makeshift concrete slab in the backyard of the couple’s South Side home.

According to San Antonio police, Hernandez denied any wrongdoing in the years that followed but also made several inconsistent statements about Salinas.

The district attorney’s office continued to investigate and eventually mounted enough evidence to convince a grand jury to indict Hernandez in 2017.

Hernandez was expected to go to trial in 2022, but he was diagnosed with cancer and the case was reset.

On Friday, Hernandez accepted a 20-year sentence in a plea deal on the murder charge.

He must serve half before he is eligible for parole.

KSAT 12 reached out to the District Attorney’s Office for comment but has yet to hear back.

Related:

• ‘We knew he knew something’: Family of Dedra Salinas speaks about her husband’s murder arrest
• Man arrested in connection with wife’s disappearance, death