Jury returns guilty verdict in fatal Lubbock Highway shooting

Lina Portman2 weeks ago

0 3 minutes read

A Lubbock jury deliberated for about 14 minutes Tuesday before returning to 364 District Court with its verdict finding a 33-year-old man guilty of murder in a 2022 shooting on Marsha Sharp Highway that killed a mother of 22 years old.

Lee McKine Jr. stood quietly next to his attorney, Kris Espino, as 364th District Judge William Eichman read the verdict.

Murder carries a penalty of five years to life in prison. However, prosecutors plan to increase that sentence to 25 years to life by using two prior Georgia convictions against him.

At the start of the trial, which began June 11, prosecutors told jurors that evidence would show that Alexandria Garcia, who they called Ali during the trial, was killed on September 17, 2022 because of the act senseless of McKine's “impulse, anger”. and revenge.”

Prosecutors charged McKine under the murder statute, alleging he caused Garcia's death by committing an act clearly dangerous to human life, namely firing a firearm at a moving vehicle .

A deadly shootout after a fight

McKine's charge stems from an investigation by the Lubbock Metropolitan Special Crimes Unit that began around 4:15 a.m. on September 17, 2022 after Lubbock police responded to Covenant Medical Center where Garcia was taken for a gunshot wound after the vehicle she was in was shot at, according to an arrest warrant.

Garcia was pronounced dead upon arrival.

Prosecutor Tyler Smotherman, in his opening statement, told jurors the shooting stemmed from a fight at an after-hours club near the intersection of 50th Street and Research Boulevard.

Footage from the club's security cameras showed Garcia was with a group of people fighting another group of people including McKine, according to police officials.

During the fight, a man armed with an AK-style pistol could be seen walking outside the club and then out of the cameras' view. Investigators believed the man started shooting because people could be seen running away, the warrant states.

Investigators recovered several 7.62-caliber shell casings in the area of the shooting, the warrant states.

Meanwhile, Garcia and his group left.

However, the video showed the shooter, identified by authorities as McKine, and two women getting into a dark-colored Ford Mustang, which fled, the warrant states.

Garcia's group was in the 4600 block of Marsha Sharp Highway, unaware they were being chased by the shooter, who caught up with them and began shooting at their vehicle.

Garcia, who was sitting in the back seat behind the driver, was shot in the neck, piercing her throat and carotid artery, Smotherman said.

His driver went to Covenant Medical Center. “But it’s too late,” Smotherman told jurors. “Ally, 22, is already dead.”

Investigators believe McKine resembled the shooter seen in the club's after-hours video and have obtained a warrant for his arrest.

At that time, he was already in custody at the jail after being stopped by Lubbock County Sheriff's deputies around 5:30 a.m. for speeding in a Ford Mustang in the area of County Roads 6900 and 1340.

Meanwhile, deputies returned the vehicle to the women McKine was with. One of the women was identified in court records as 20-year-old Cysili Quintanilla.

Investigators obtained a search warrant for Quintanilla's home in the 1900 block of East Auburn Street. The search revealed a 7.62 caliber AK pistol hidden under a mattress. Smotherman told jurors he expected to present evidence showing the gun fired the bullet that killed Garcia.

Smotherman told jurors to expect to hear about the shooting investigation that identified McKine in the shooting, including jailhouse phone calls and interviews with investigators in which he admitted to the shooting.

Quintanilla faces four aggravated assault charges in a separate case stemming from a separate investigation about a year after the shooting in which she is accused of fighting with a group of people in a bar in downtown Lubbock and then tried to run them over with his car, according to a police report.

Smotherman told jurors that Quintanilla allegedly told investigators she sat in the passenger seat while McKine drove the Mustang that pursued the Chrysler Garcia.

He said Quintanilla told investigators that McKine asked him to back up before leaning into the passenger seat and shooting at the Chrysler.

However, Espino told jurors in his closing argument that the physical evidence, particularly the apparent trajectory of the gunshots, shows the gunshots most likely came from the passenger side of the vehicle.

Prosecutor Courtney Boyd told jurors they played a recording of McKine's conversation with a girlfriend during a jailhouse phone call, during which he admitted to shooting at the vehicle.

A deadly shootout after a fight

Lina Portman

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