SAN ANTONIO – A man was sentenced to prison for shooting and killing his 19-year-old friend on the Northwest Side in 2021.
Joan Francisco Paulino, 22, was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison for manslaughter. He was originally indicted for murder in the death of Michael Garcia-Sanchez, but he entered a plea deal on a lesser charge of manslaughter.
San Antonio police said that on Feb. 3, 2021, Paulino shot Garcia-Sanchez in the 9100 block of Roquefort Drive, not far from New Guilbeau Road and Loop 1604.
Upon arrival, officers found Garcia-Sanchez with a gunshot wound to the upper body. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Paulino was detained after the shooting because SAPD’s Eagle helicopter observed him in a car that left the scene. Paulino and two juveniles were in the car, and they drove to a nearby alley and returned to the scene.
A K9 officer later found a handgun in the alley, police said.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Paulino and Garcia-Sanchez were “long-time friends.”
Paulino originally told officers that someone pulled up next to them and shot Garcia-Sanchez. He later told his mother and Garcia-Sanchez’s mother that he shot him and tried to hide the gun, the affidavit states.
A motive was not listed in the affidavit.