Suspect of 2016 Murder Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison

Henry Lopez Leon, one of two men found guilty in connection with the murder of Alexander Macias Garcia, was sentenced to 10 years in state prison on May 26, 2022. 

On September 27, 2019, a Travis County Grand Jury indicted Leon and Jose Cruz Rivera in connection to the 2016 murder of 20 year-old Alexander Macias Garcia. Garcia was fatally shot in the head on October 15, 2016. He and his brother had gotten into a brief altercation with Leon and Rivera earlier in the evening. The Garcia brothers were traveling home from a nightclub down Interstate Highway 35 when they got into a car accident across from Wells Branch Parkway. Leon and Rivera had been following the pair on the highway. According to the surviving Garcia brother, one of the men had gotten out of the car and fired multiple shots at the brothers. Alexander Garcia sustained a fatal wound to the head, and his brother was injured. Alexander Garcia was found dead on the scene by police officers, and the case quickly went cold as there were no other witnesses.

The APD's Cold Case Unit and the district attorney's office established a team of detectives and prosecutors to collaborate on cold cases in 2017. Three years after the murder, in 2019, KVUE reports that evidence eventually led detectives to investigate Leon and Rivera. Both suspects were interviewed, and detectives found the murder weapon and were able to trace it back to both men. Officials had also found a stain on Garcia’s shirt, which they reported was from the earlier altercation at the nightclub. They were able to match Leon’s profile based on DNA testing. Both Leon and Rivera were indicted in 2019.

KXAN reports that Leon entered his guilty plea in July 2021, and has been sentenced to 10 years in state prison. He will receive credit for the 966 days he has already spent in prison. He will serve the rest of his sentence in Huntsville. He must also pay a $450 fine. Leon pleaded guilty to killing Alexander Macias-Garcia in October 2016 along Wells Branch Parkway near Heatherwilde Blvd. in north Austin. The sentencing was delayed because Rivera’s guilty plea was not officially filed until May 16, 2022. He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, which is a second-degree felony.