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As his new wife wept in the courtroom, convicted murderer Dustin Lee Osborne listened to prosecutor Josh Somers tell a jury Friday considering his punishment that the 20-year-old killer is a drug dealer, liar and manipulator.
With the murder weapon sitting in front of the jury, Somers said: “When you carry guns, threaten people and murder someone, it’s not a mistake. It’s who you are. Today you get a chance to protect us from him by sending him to prison for life.”
Osborne, now 20 and an admitted drug dealer, was convicted this week of shooting Ralph Michael Lopez, 34, on Aug. 11, 2014, in the driveway of Lopez’s South Side home, after what witnesses testified was a brief argument.
State District Judge Jefferson Moore instructed the jury that they could consider whether “sudden passion” was a mitigating factor in the murder, which could reduce the crime to a second degree felony that carries a 2- to 20-year range of sentence. Failing that, the crime remains a first degree felony, with a term of 5 to 99 years in prison.
Court-appointed defense attorney Patrick Hancock told the jury his client had acted in self-defense and was so neglected as a child that he was destined to be a criminal.
“Dustin never had a chance,” Hancock said. “He never had nurturing parents. His dad was in and out of prison. He dropped out of high school in 2014. He’s a product of this street culture.
“He’s going to prison. He knows that,” Hancock said. “But he should be punished in a fair and just manner.”
After listening to both sides, the jury began deliberating Osborne’s sentence Friday morning at the Bexar County courthouse.
bselcraig@express-news.net
bselcraig@express-news.net
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