Wife of slain Southlake cartel lawyer describes fear, evasive action

The cartel lawyer killed at Southlake Town Square in 2013 had feared for his life for more than two years, moving his family to a gated Southlake neighborhood and hiding out at local hotels, his wife testified in federal court Wednesday.

Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa, reportedly connected to the former leader of the Gulf drug cartel in Mexico, had gone to the upscale shopping center in a Fort Worth suburb for ice cream the day he was killed, Julia Tijerina de la Garza testified Wednesday.

Tijerina, who was with Guerrero when he was shot to death, testified for about 20 minutes before court broke for lunch Wednesday in the trial of two men accused of stalking Guerrero.

Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Cepeda, 59, and his cousin, Jose Luis Cepeda-Cortes, 59, are each charged with interstate stalking resulting in death and conspiracy to commit murder for hire. Ledezma-Cepeda’s son, Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Campano, has already pleaded guilty in the case and testified against his family members last week.

During Wednesday’s testimony, Tijerina told jurors her husband received two calls almost two years apart —first in the spring of 2011 and later in February 2013—informing him that he had been found.

After the first call, Guerrero was “afraid and surprised,” his wife said, and moved his family from Grapevine to a gated neighborhood in Southlake.

The caller informed Guerrero that “they had found him, they knew where he lived and they wanted to kill him,” his wife said.

Guerrero, though, continued his regular routine, his wife said, running errands on a regular basis. His routine changed after receiving the call in February 2013, about three months before his death.

He was “shocked and afraid and thought they were looking for him,” Tijerina said. She did not specify who called her husband each time.

But she said he knew “he had been found,” so he kept a low profile, staying in hotels around northeast Tarrant County, including the Gaylord Texan and the Hilton in Southlake Town Square.

On the day of his killing, Tijerina said, she drove their Range Rover to Town Square and parked near the pond with a fountain. They went to get ice cream, and returned to a bench near their SUV. After they finished the ice cream, Tijerina said, they went to a store to shop for shoes.

When the couple returned to the Range Rover, Tijerina went to place her shopping bags in the back seat. Out of the corner of her eye, she said, she saw an SUV pull up behind the Range Rover.

“Someone got out quickly,” she said, wiping away tears between prosecutor’s questions.

Tijerina said she then heard a noise. When she looked through the front door of the Range Rover, she saw her husband reaching toward the back seat.

“Blood was coming out of his mouth,” she said.

An ambulance took Guerrero to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Defense attorneys are expected to cross-examine Tijerina this afternoon.

This story was originally published May 4, 2016 at 12:46 PM with the headline "Wife of slain Southlake cartel lawyer describes fear, evasive action."