July 21, 2008 - 9:44PM
Jeremy Roebuck, The McAllen Monitor

EDINBURG - A man accused of fatally shooting his 16-year-old girlfriend, burning her body and then abandoning her infant child on the side of a busy Weslaco road nearly two years ago stood before a jury Monday.

Prosecutors allege Samuel Villarreal, 40, killed Aida Mae Rodriguez in November 2006 because she had walked in on him at their Mercedes apartment as he raped a then 13-year-old relative.

But Villarreal's defense attorneys denied Monday their client played any role in Rodriguez's death.

They told jurors that anything he may have done to the other girl, who has since given birth to his daughter, was extraneous to the case at hand.

It is The Monitor's policy not to identify alleged victims of sexual assault. The name of the teenage relative, who is now 15, and her relation to Villarreal have been withheld to protect her identity.

Read the entire article HERE [1].