A 36-year-old man has been sentenced to 99 years in prison for fatally shooting his girlfriend last year in the garage of her home, while his three young children played videos inside.
Jurors in state district Judge Mollee Westfall’s court deliberated about 30 minutes on Friday before convicting Samuel Arren Ferralez of murder in the death of his girlfriend, Stephenie Caddy-Aqqad. Later, the panel deliberated about an hour before assessing the maximum punishment.
During the week-long trial, prosecutors Tim Bednarz and Tamla Ray presented evidence that Ferralez was living with Caddy-Aqqad and her three children in a house she rented in the 3500 block of Saint Vincent Road in south Fort Worth.
According to family members, their relationship was not good.
On the evening of May 29, 2011, Ferralez shot Caddy- Aqqad in the back while inside the garage. Afterward, Ferralez walked through the house and out the back door, where he tossed a .38 caliber handgun and bullets over the backyard fence.
When questioned by police shortly after the shooting, Ferralez claimed Caddy-Aqqad was killed by an unknown man who had followed her home from the pharmacy. He denied having a gun and had no explanation for how the gun ended up behind Caddy-Aqqad’s home.
During the trial, however, Ferralez changed his story and testified that he arrived home and found Caddy-Aqqad with another man inside the garage. He testified that he grabbed a gun from his car, confronted the man and they struggled over the gun. During the struggle, Ferralez testified, the gun went off and struck Caddy-Aqqad in the back.
He said that after Caddy-Aqqad was shot, he threw the gun and bullets over the fence before calling 911.
Ferralez had his three children that evening and they were upstairs playing video games when the shooting occurred. Caddy-Aqqad’s three children were with their father in Galveston when their mother was killed.
“I’ve never prosecuted a defendant whose story on the witness stand was so dramatically different from the story he had told police” said Assistant District Attorney Tim Bednarz. “We’re pleased that the jury was able to see Ferralez for what he is: a liar and a killer. We’re happy justice was done, not only for Stephenie, but also for her three children and the rest of her family.”
