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A 24-year-old Houston man has been sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend in the back as she and her mother tried to drive away from a confrontation in 2009.
Selestino Gutierrez Torres pleaded guilty to the murder last week. A jury Wednesday sentenced him to life in prison after hearing a week’s worth of testimony that he unloaded a .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol on 23-year-old Michelle Lira, the daughter of Houston Fire Department senior Capt. Larry Lira, and her mother, who survived.
"He continued to shoot until the gun was empty," said Assistant Harris County District Attorney Brad Loper. "Then he continued clicking the trigger."
The two women were trying to leave the family’s driveway on June 30, 2009 when they were approached by Torres, who wanted to talk to Lira about their on-again, off-again relationship, Loper said.
Torres’s attorney, Windi Akins Pastorini said her client was remorseful on the wtiness stand.
"He’s certainly sorry," the attorney said. "That’s why he just wanted to plead guilty and have the jury decide punishment."
She said the facts of the case led prosecutors to offer only the maximum in the case as a plea bargain.
Pastorini argued Torres was driven by "sudden passion" saying that Lira, his high school sweetheart, had told him she aborted their child.
"That was the argument," Pastorini said. "Quite frankly, it didn’t help that the complainant was shot nine times, seven times in the back."
The victim’s mother, Ramona Lira, testified her daughter was never pregnant.
If jurors had believed he acted in sudden passion, his punishment would have been capped at 20 years in prison.
Loper said charges against Terri Lynn Wallace, 22, who was accused of being the getaway driver, were dropped after Torres was sentenced.
