SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio mother is at peace now that her 15-year-old son’s alleged killer is behind bars.
Christine Vidales’ son, Sonny Vidales, died in September after police said Alonzo Cantu, 19, shot and killed him while trying to buy something Sonny Vidales was selling online.
“They told me he came to purchase something from my son and decided he wanted to rob and shoot him instead,” Christine Vidales said. “Why did you have to do that? Why didn’t you just take it and run? He doesn’t realize the trauma he has put not just me but (Sonny's) siblings in.”
Christine Vidales said it was a devastating sight she will never forget.
“He came in my room and turned the light on like he usually does,” Christine Vidales said. “I jumped up, because he opened my door hard, and he was like, ‘Mom!’ I was like, ‘What! What!’ He was like, ‘Help me,’ and his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed. I just hurried up and called 911, but his 4-year-old sister was sleeping with me, and she woke up and saw her brother lying on the ground.”
She said her last words were those that any mother would say.
“When he was passing, I was crying out, ‘God have mercy on him! Please don’t take my baby!’ I told him as I held him, ‘Sonny, I love you,'" Christine Vidales said.
Christine Vidales said now that Cantu is in custody, she has a sense of relief.
“It is like one door closed and another opened,” Christine Vidales said. “I am glad he is off the streets, so I do have peace.”
Christine Vidales said she is still trying to cope with the loss of her young son.
“I am trying not to look at this in a negative way,” Christine Vidales said. “I am trying to take his death as ‘OK, you know what, Lord, you allowed him to die in my arms.’ He took his first breath in my arms, and he took his last breath in my arms. It is still hard, though.”
Sonny Vidales’ mother isn’t the only one taking his death hard.
“(His siblings) ask about him all the time,” Christine Vidales said. “I try to instill in them and tell them when they are having those hard times (to) remember what Sonny used to do ... I would tell them to hold onto those memories.”
Sonny Vidales is now resting in an urn that sits in his bedroom, surrounded by pictures.
“I have his baby prints on the wall and all his pictures there,” Christine Vidales said. “Every time I am feeling down or some kind of way, I go in there and I talk to him. I am at peace, and I know my son would be happy with the way I am handling things and the situation.”
Christine Vidales also wears her son's necklace and rings around her neck. In front of their home is a memorial that features Sonny Vidales’ photos, flowers and a small giraffe, symbolizing the nickname his younger siblings used to call him.
“My youngest daughter, who is 4, used to call him 'stupid giraffe.' He was 6-foot-3, and he would joke with them, and he would call her fat hippo and she would say, ‘Stupid giraffe,'" Christine Vidales said. "Now every time she sees this giraffe, she says, ‘Mom, look, stupid giraffe. My Sonny. Sonny Bunny has no money,’ like she would always say.”
Now, she said she attends meetings with other parents who have lost a child.
“I go in there and I hear them say things like ‘I hate him (the killer),’ or ‘I wish he was dead for killing my baby,’ or ‘I wish there was some other way justice could be served.’ I don’t feel that way,” Christine Vidales said. “I want justice to be served for my son, but I want it to be served the right way.”
She said she forgives Cantu for his mistake.
“I pray while he is in jail, he changes his life and he does what is right, because he didn’t just hurt me, but he hurt his family as well,” Christine Vidales said. “I didn’t just lose my son’s life. His mother lost him as well, because he gave up his life the day he decided to take my son’s life.”
Christine Vidales has a message for Cantu.
“I just want him to know, 'I don’t hate you. I don’t. And this won’t be the last time you see me. I will be there every court date.' You never know, I might even be there to just visit him and pray for him," Christine Vidales said.
Christine Vidales said her heart breaks knowing how young people are dying at the hands of other young people in violent ways.
“Sonny was actually best friends with Christian Santos, the boy who was shot after he was set up,” Christine Vidales said. “I have just been praying for his family, as well, because this is just sad that all these things are happening to our children, these senseless crimes.”
Christine Vidales also has a message for parents out there, as well.
“Every time Sonny would get into little things, I would always tell him, ‘You’ll learn the hard way. You’ll learn the hard way,'” Christine Vidales said. “I want to tell parents, 'Don’t just say that. Do a little more.' I hold onto some guilt, in a sense, that I could have done more for my son. Be on your kids a little more, and if you are already on them, be on them a little bit more. Some kids don’t come out of this. Some do. Some learn and some grow from this, and they change, but some don’t and some end up in urns and in the ground.”
Cantu is now in custody facing a murder charge.