BISBEE — A prosecution witnesses in the juvenile court murder trial of a 12-year-old Douglas boy has testified that the boy shot his mother eight times after arguing with her earlier in the day about chores.
The mother's live-in boyfriend testified that the boy had argued with 34-year-old Sara Madrid on the afternoon of Aug. 1 before the couple left their home for an errand. Alfonso Munoz testified in Cochise County Court in Bisbee on Wednesday that when the couple returned, the boy was sitting in a car.
Munoz said Madrid approached her son and asked him why he was not doing his chores. That's when he heard noises that sounded like "firecrackers" and realized the boy had shot Madrid. Munoz told him to put down the gun, and he did so.
Munoz testified that the boy told him, "I'm sorry, dad. I didn't mean to."
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Munoz broke down in tears on the stand when he recalled Madrid asking him to hold her as she lay dying.
Prosecutors wanted the boy tried as an adult, but Judge James Conlogue decided he should be tried as a juvenile. That decision came after a psychologist and psychiatrist testified in November that the boy suffered physical and verbal abuse from his mother and could be rehabilitated in the juvenile justice system. The boy is not being identified because he is charged as a juvenile.
County Medical Examiner Guery Flores testified that Madrid died from internal bleeding due to gunshots in the heart, chest and abdomen. He said she was hit eight times.
The Ruger pistol the boy allegedly used belonged to Munoz, who kept it unloaded but with a nearby magazine in his bedroom closet. Munoz said the boy wanted to become a Border Patrol agent when he grew up and he had trained the boy over five years on how to safely fire a gun. He instructed him to only use the gun in an emergency and only for self-defense.
Several law enforcement officers also testified Wednesday about how they tried to give first aid to Madrid and a criminalist matched the bullet and casings to the Ruger.
Sheriff's deputy Ivan Gamez testified that the boy acknowledged to him that he pulled the trigger and killed Madrid.
Defense attorney Sanford Edelman will begin presenting his case when the trial resumes on Jan. 2.
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