The capital murder trial of a construction worker accused in a brutal and random stabbing attack in a grocery store parking lot is underway in Dallas County.
A man accused of stabbing one man to death and injuring another at a Richardson grocery store in August 2019 will spend the rest of his life in jail after being found guilty of capital murder Wednesday.
Armando Navarro, 29, entered a "not guilty" plea but after hearing from the prosecution and defense jurors disagreed and found him guilty of killing 42-year-old Arturo Negrete and injuring Juan Hernandez two years ago.
Being found guilty of capital murder, Navarro was automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Hernandez, a Richardson city custodian, told the court Tuesday he stopped by the Kroger on North Coit Road to grab breakfast and was approached by a man wearing a construction hardhat and reflective vest who asked him for a cigarette.
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After telling the man he didn't have one, he said he was attacked from behind. Hernandez thought the stranger had punched him in the neck, only to realize he’d been stabbed under the chin.
“After he attacked me, he was in anger and he started to insult me and he was telling me that I must be dead by now,” said Hernandez.
Hernandez managed to snap a photograph of the suspect on his cell phone, which was shown to jurors during the trial.
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Prosecutor Jason Fine claimed Navarro then approached Negrete and stabbed him multiple times before leaving him to die on the concrete.
Fine said Navarro carjacked the victim, taking his car only to crash it into another vehicle down the road. The victim in that hit-and-run testified he chased after Navarro after he ran away from the crash scene.
The suspect is accused of then breaking into at least one house before Dallas police arrived and arrested him.
