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Survivor, witnesses testify about chaotic scene after triple homicide at Garland store

Richard Acosta Jr. is accused of driving his 14-year-old son to the Texaco where three teenagers were fatally shot.

Update:
Revised at 6 p.m. to include additional testimony throughout.

Dozens of friends and family members of three slain teenagers sat shoulder-to-shoulder inside a seventh-floor courtroom in Dallas on Tuesday as smiling photographs of the boys hung at the front of the room.

Richard Acosta Jr., 34, sat next to his attorneys at the front of the room, dressed in a gray suit with a red and white striped tie and glasses. He is accused of driving his son, Abel Elias Acosta, to and from a Texaco station in Garland the night of Dec. 26, 2021, where police say the 14-year-old boy fatally shot three teenagers.

Killed were 14-year-old Xavier Gonzalez, 16-year-old Ivan Noyala and 17-year-old Rafael Garcia. A 15-year-old cook, David Rodriguez, who had just started working at the gas station, was struck in the chest but survived.

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During the first day of testimony in Richard Acosta’s capital murder trial, the jury heard from nine witnesses — including the wounded taco shop worker and the first Garland officer to arrive at the scene — and watched graphic surveillance footage of the shooting.

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Texas’ law of parties allows people involved in capital murder to be charged with the most severe crime even if they did not pull the trigger. If convicted, Acosta could face life in prison without parole.

The Dallas Morning News typically does not name juveniles suspected of a crime but is making an exception because Abel Acosta, now 15, remains at large and is believed to pose a threat to public safety.

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Flowers were placed outside the Texaco station where three teenagers were fatally shot in...
Flowers were placed outside the Texaco station where three teenagers were fatally shot in December 2021.(Rebecca Slezak / Rebecca Slezak)

‘Actions speak louder than words’

The night of the shooting, Noyala and Garcia had gone to pick up tacos from the gas station, Noyala’s uncle testified. He said the friends had been in a good mood, laughing and joking on the way there.

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Gonzalez was also there to pick up food, prosecutors said.

Minutes later all three were fatally struck when a gunman fired at least 20 shots in roughly nine seconds.

“All the while, this defendant has his foot on the brake, truck in drive, waiting,” prosecutor Stephanie Fargo said. “Actions speak louder than words.”

Heath Harris, Acosta’s attorney, agreed with Fargo to a point: “Actions do speak louder than words — but the words that were said inside that vehicle, only two people know.”

Harris said Acosta was charged with capital murder in an effort to lure his son out of hiding.

He said when Acosta takes the stand later in the trial he’ll talk about how he didn’t know that his son had any issues with the boys in the store, that he tried to stop him from getting out of the truck and when he drove away it was because “all he knows is he heard shots fired and he’s trying to get out of there.”

Acosta turned himself in after seeing his photo on television the day after the shooting, Harris said, adding that he was surprised to learn he faced a capital murder charge. He’s been held at the Dallas County jail on $3 million bail since then.

Armando Macedonio, the uncle of Ivan Noyola, cries at the witness stand as he recalls the...
Armando Macedonio, the uncle of Ivan Noyola, cries at the witness stand as he recalls the night of the shooting.(Rebecca Slezak / Staff Photographer)
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Video evidence

Garland police Officer Byron Velasquez was the first officer on the scene.

Seven minutes of footage from his body-worn camera showed Velasquez enter the gas station and immediately see a teenage boy — Gonzalez — on the ground behind an ice cream bin, gasping for air and bleeding.

He put two fingers to the boy’s neck.

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“We got a pulse,” Velasquez said multiple times before speaking directly to the boy. “Hey buddy, stick with me. OK?”

Several people in the courtroom held tissues to their faces and rubbed each others’ backs as the video was shown. A handful of others left the room.

Velasquez also testified that he arrested Acosta’s wife after a traffic stop while conducting surveillance on the family’s home less than 48 hours after the shooting. He said officers found a handgun during a search of the car, but it’s not clear whether that gun was tied to the shooting.

Detective Tony Godwin compiled footage from multiple surveillance cameras that captured the shooting, and a gasp broke the silence in the courtroom when that video showed the gunman fire a shot directly at Gonzalez as he was lying on the floor. Multiple cries were heard before the judge called a recess.

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Harris argued that Godwin edited the compilation video only to corroborate the details they needed to build a capital murder investigation.

Harris also noted, and Godwin confirmed, a different juvenile who looks similar to Abel Acosta was taken into custody before Abel Acosta was publicly identified as the suspect.

Photos of Ivan Noyola, Rafael Garcia and Xavier Gonzalez are on display in the courtroom.
Photos of Ivan Noyola, Rafael Garcia and Xavier Gonzalez are on display in the courtroom.(Rebecca Slezak / Staff Photographer)

Eyewitnesses

Noyala’s uncle, Armando Macedonio, said he was in his truck with his mother in the parking lot when he saw the gunman go to the door of the gas station and heard him open fire.

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Through tears, Macedonio described going into the Texaco — where smoke from the gunshots still lingered — and searching for his nephew.

“I thought maybe he was alive,” he said “I didn’t think they were going to do that to him.”

He found Noyala face down in a pool of blood, he said, before calling 911.

Rodriguez, the taco shop cook, testified that he didn’t know the other victims and didn’t notice any fighting or arguing before the shooting began.

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He didn’t realize he was shot until his cousin screamed, he said. She put pressure on the wound until paramedics took him to the hospital.

“I was asking God to take my life away because if I was going to die I wanted it to be fast,” he said. “Then I regretted it and asked God to save me.”

Testimony is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday.