A Waco man was sentenced Thursday to 45 years in prison for murdering the mother of his child in September.
At the time of the shooting that killed Maria Guerrero, 21, and wounded another man, Gustavo Rojas, 26, was free on bond, awaiting trial on a charge he strangled Guerrero in 2020.
Judge Thomas West of Waco’s 19th State District Court sentenced Rojas for the murder and aggravated assault in accordance with a plea deal he reached with prosecutors.
Rojas was arrested Sept. 30, the day after Guerrero was killed and a 21-year-old man was wounded in a shooting as they sat in a car parked outside a house in the 1900 block of Avondale Avenue.
In a victim impact statement during Thursday’s court proceedings, Maria Guerrero’s older sister, Karina Guerrero, said Rojas broke their family.
People are also reading…
“Maria was the baby of our family and she was supposed to outlive all of us,” Karina Guerrero said. “My mom’s house feels so empty now without my sister.”
She said Rojas’ actions mean Maria’s young child will grow up without her.
Karina Guerrero said her own daughter also misses her Aunt Maria and frequently asks when she will play with her again.
“My sister didn’t always make the best decisions and she didn’t live along the straightest path, nevertheless she deserved to live,” Karina Guerrero told Rojas.
Guerrero’s mother, Matilde Guerrero, gave an anguished victim impact statement in Spanish after the sentencing, at turns weeping, sobbing and angry.
After the hearing, Matilde Guerrero said, with Karina interpreting, that Maria was a good daughter and she loved her very much.
Affidavits in the case say Rojas was the father of Maria Guerrero’s child.
He fired 18 rounds at Maria Guerrero and the other man, according to the affidavit.
Both where taken to a local hospital, where Guerrero later died from her wounds. The man survived and while being rolled into surgery told personnel Rojas had shot him, the affidavit says.
A neighbor also identified Rojas as the shooter, according to the affidavit.
West sentenced Rojas to 20 years on the aggravated assault charge involving the 21-year-old man and 45 years for Guerrero’s murder. The sentences will run concurrently, and Rojas will have to serve half his sentence before he will be eligible to seek parole. As part of the plea agreement, the 2020 assault by strangulation charge against Rojas was dismissed. His arrest affidavit in that case says his sister called 911 to report seeing him slap and strangle Guerrero.