Trial of man accused of killing Fort Worth auto shop owner ends in mistrial

A mistrial was declared in a murder trial Wednesday after the jury could not agree whether the accused had fatally shot a Fort Worth auto shop owner 12 years ago.

The jury had deliberated roughly 14 hours over a three-day period regarding 31-year-old Juan Eduardo Meraz’s guilt or innocence before the mistrial was declared.

Meraz was 19 when prosecutors allege he fatally shot Jose “Martin” Muñoz, a married father of three, during an argument at Munoz’s shop on East Rosedale Street on Jan. 31, 2007.

Police have said two men arrived at Muñoz’s business in a pickup, wanting to get rims changed out on two wheels. After the work was done, however, one of the men complained that one of the rims had been damaged.

An argument followed over payment, and the man pulled out a gun and shot Munoz in the head.

The case had gone cold until 2017, when Fort Worth police received a tip about Meraz’s possible involvement and found that a fingerprint recovered from the rim of a tire left behind by the suspects matched Meraz.

When charged with murder in the case in late November 2017, Meraz — a Mexican national — was serving his third stint in federal prison for re-entering the United States after deportation.

Lisa Mullen, Meraz’s defense attorney, had argued that Meraz had previously worked with his stepfather on cars and could have left the fingerprint on the tire rim at any time before the murder.

“Twelve years later you get charged because your fingerprint happens to be on a tire rim with a very good explanation,” she told jurors during closing arguments. “What have y’all touched 10 years ago, 12 years ago? You better hope it never ends up in a crime scene.”

Mullen also pointed out that there were four other fingerprints on the rim that didn’t belong to her client and that were never identified.

“Any one of those people could have committed this crime,” she told jurors.

Mullen called the evidence against her client “so minimal it doesn’t even come close to beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“This case is upsetting. This case is the prime example of how innocent people get convicted,” she told jurors.

Lucas Allan, who prosecuted the case along with Jeff Bullock, had urged jurors to remember that, in addition to the fingerprint, Meraz had been identified as the shooter by Raudel Garcia, who worked at the shop with Muñoz that day.

“He miraculously selects the same person whose print is on the rim of this tire. The chances of that are astronomical,” Allan told jurors.

Allan asked jurors to remember back to what they were doing on Sept. 11, 2001.

“Is that memory not forever etched in your brain?” he asked jurors regarding the terrorist attacks. “Imagine what is etched in Mr. Garcia’s brain forever. ... He will never forget that image.”

Prosecutors declined to comment about the mistrial Wednesday or whether they intend to try Meraz again. Samantha Jordan, a spokeswoman with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office, said only that the charges remain pending.

Mullen did not immediately return a phone message from the Star-Telegram seeking comment.

Muñoz’s oldest daughter, Viviana Muñoz-Cardoso, also declined to comment Wednesday about the mistrial. In anticipation of another trial, she asked anyone with information to come forward to authorities.

Meraz, who went by the nickname Lalo, had previously plead guilty in 2005 of two charges of engaging in organized crime in connection with a December 2004 gang-related shooting in exchange for a sentence of nine months in state jail.

After serving his sentence, he was deported to Mexico in October 2005 but would later be arrested in the U.S. three other times — in 2008, 2011 and 2014.

He was charged federally each time with re-entry after deportation, pleaded guilty, and sentenced to three stints in federal prison.

He was still serving the last stint — a 30-month sentence — in a medium security federal prison in Beaumont and was a few months away from another scheduled deportation when he was charged with Muñoz’s murder in late November 2017.

He remained held in the Tarrant County Jail Wednesday with bail set at $50,000.

The Star-Telegram had highlighted Muñoz’s case in its “Out of the Cold” podcast, which explores solved and unsolved cold cases in North Texas.

This story was originally published March 27, 2019 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Trial of man accused of killing Fort Worth auto shop owner ends in mistrial."