SAN ANTONIO \u2013 A San Antonio murder suspect, who was labeled as a \u201chabitual offender\u201d in an indictment, was granted deferred adjudication Thursday on a lesser charge. <\/p>\n
Bexar County court records show Juan Gabriel Medina, 41, was originally charged with murder following a deadly March 31, 2022, shooting. <\/p>\n
An SAPD incident report obtained by KSAT revealed Medina as the person who allegedly shot and killed a victim identified as Davian Corey Mendoza. <\/p>\n
Court records indicate Medina\u2019s murder charge was waived before he was sentenced to 10 years deferred adjudication for unlawfully carrying a weapon as a previously convicted felon \u2014 which means he will not face any time behind bars. The charge is considered a second-degree felony. <\/p>\n
Visiting Judge Kevin M. O\u2019Connell presided over the case in Bexar County\u2019s 290th Criminal District Court. <\/p>\n
The shooting<\/p>\n
According to the incident report, three San Antonio police officers responded to a shooting call at approximately 7:15 p.m. to an apartment complex. The complex\u2019s location was redacted in the report. <\/p>\n
Upon arrival, the first officer said they saw Medina walk down a flight of stairs and admitted he was \u201cthe one\u201d who fired a weapon. Moments later, the second responding officer placed Medina in handcuffs, the report states. The first and third officers then entered the unit where the shooting took place. <\/p>\n
Shortly after entering the unit, the first officer said they saw Mendoza \u201claying on the living room floor\u201d with a gunshot wound to his face. San Antonio fire crews were called to the scene. <\/p>\n
The first officer later saw a \u201cfirearm\u201d outside the unit \u201claying next to the doorway\u201d and elected to leave it there until crime scene investigators arrived, the report states. <\/p>\n
Medina told police he was there to help a woman move out of the apartment. According to Medina, the woman wanted to move out \u201cdue to family violence\u201d involving Mendoza. <\/p>\n
At some point, police said Medina and Mendoza got into an argument about the woman\u2019s birth certificate. The argument escalated when Medina said Mendoza appeared to reach into his pocket for something. <\/p>\n
Medina, according to the report, demanded to know what Mendoza was reaching for. Mendoza pulled out a knife. Police said Medina asked Mendoza to put the knife down. <\/p>\n
According to Medina, he reached for and grabbed a pistol from the woman\u2019s sister. Medina pointed the weapon at Mendoza before he shot him in the face. <\/p>\n
The gunowner \u2014 as well as another witness who lives at the apartment \u2014 corroborated Medina\u2019s account about why he was there, the argument with Mendoza, Mendoza\u2019s knife and his shooting of Mendoza in separate interviews with SAPD, the report states. <\/p>\n
In the report, the first officer wrote that they transported Medina to SAPD headquarters for questioning. After he spoke to detectives at headquarters, detectives told the first officer to \u201crelease\u201d Medina while their \u201cinvestigation continues.\u201d <\/p>\n
The officer then dropped Medina off at his mother\u2019s home, according to the report. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo further action taken,\u201d the SAPD report concludes.<\/p>\n
Medina\u2019s indictment<\/p>\n
On March 25, 2024 \u2014 nearly two full years after the deadly shooting \u2014 a Bexar County grand jury indicted Medina in connection with the 2022 murder of Mendoza. KSAT obtained a copy of the indictment Friday. <\/p>\n
Following the second paragraph of the indictment, the document labeled Medina as a \u201chabitual offender\u201d after he was convicted of separate felonies in 2005 and 2011, respectively. <\/p>\n
An SAPD spokesperson told KSAT that an officer conducted an April 11, 2024, traffic stop on Medina. Police then learned of his active warrant and took him into custody. <\/p>\n
At the time, Medina was facing more than a murder charge. Jail and court records show he was also booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on the following charges: <\/p>\n
unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon (third-degree felony) <\/p>\n
possessing between four ounces and five pounds of marijuana (state jail felony)<\/p>\n
According to court records, the third-degree felony and state jail felony charges were dismissed Friday morning. <\/p>\n
DA\u2019s office recusal<\/p>\n
After obtaining the SAPD incident report and March 2024 indictment, KSAT reached out to the Bexar County District Attorney\u2019s Office for comment Friday. <\/p>\n
In a statement to KSAT, the DA\u2019s office said it \u201cfiled a motion for recusal\u201d in Medina\u2019s case long before Thursday\u2019s sentencing. <\/p>\n
Court records show the motion was filed Aug. 28, 2024 \u2014 just four months after police arrested Medina during the traffic stop. The DA\u2019s office spokesperson said the court granted its request on Oct. 3, 2024. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result, our office had no involvement or oversight in the outcome of this case,\u201d the Bexar County DA\u2019s Office spokesperson said. \u201cIf you have any additional questions, please contact the (290th Criminal District) court directly for more information, as well as the appointed attorney pro tem, who handled the case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though the DA\u2019s office did not explain why it wanted to recuse itself, KSAT asked the spokesperson for its reason behind the decision in a follow-up question. <\/p>\n
KSAT also emailed the court coordinator inside the 290th Criminal District Court for comment Friday on Medina\u2019s sentencing. This story will be updated with responses from the DA\u2019s office and the court. <\/p>\n
More recent courts coverage on KSAT: <\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 A San Antonio murder suspect, who was labeled as a \u201chabitual offender\u201d in an indictment,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[698,12940,815,294,82,84,83,632],"class_list":["post-394256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-bexar-county","tag-bexar-county-district-attorneys-office","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-sapd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}