Trial begins for man accused of stalking and killing UTA student – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

A homicide investigation in Dallas County was rescheduled for Tuesday morning against Jorge Esparza, the man accused of stalking and killing his romantic rival.

Esparza has maintained his innocence of murder. Ricardo Medina-Madriz in August 2020.

The first day of testimony began with the jury hearing from the woman at the center of the case.

This is a restart of the case. Back in April, as the trial began, the judge recused herself from the cases against Esparza after she commented on the case during a break in court.

Her comments were made during a livestream of the trial on YouTube.

On Tuesday morning, Denise, the woman Esparza was in love with, spoke about her intimate and non-exclusive relationship with the defendant. Denise just returned home from a date with Medina-Madris on August 9, 2020.

Medina-Madriz, a registered nurse and graduate student at the University of Texas at Arlington, was shot and killed outside Denise’s South Dallas home on Jeffreys Street.

Esparza is also accused of stalking. Although Esparza and Denise had not met in the months leading up to the shooting, Esparza admitted during questioning by Dallas police that he created at least 10 Instagram accounts to contact her.

“It’s weird because she’ll talk to me. But as soon as I ask her why don’t we go somewhere, like on a date or something, then she blocks me,” Esparza said in the interrogation video.

In court, jurors were also shown the moment Esparza confessed to the Medina Madriz shooting just days after the shooting.

“Did you shoot him?” the detective asked Esparza.

“Yes,” Esparza said.

“How many times did you shoot him, George?” – asked the detective.

“I want to say three,” Esparza said.

Esparza’s lawyers have questioned the videotaped interrogation because only one shell casing was found at the scene. Esparza has maintained his innocence and told jurors Tuesday that he was confused the day of the interview.

“I told him what he wanted to hear because, again, I was confused about a lot of things,” Esparza said in court.

Esparza claimed he drove to Denise’s house; however, he never meant to harm anyone.

“Actually on August 9th, I should have killed myself that night,” Esparza said. “At some point I do go to Denise’s house because I want to apologize for everything.”

Testimony will continue Wednesday morning.