• BY LESLIE WILBER - LWILBER@VICAD.COM
• Originally published November 17, 2009 at 8 p.m., updated November 17, 2009 at 10:25 p.m.

• What's next

  The trial continues 9 a.m. Wednesday in district Judge Robert Cheshire's courtroom.

A misplaced wallet started the chain of events that led to the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old, prosecutors said Tuesday.

When Derrick Quintanilla was shot in the cheek at close range on Oct. 30, 2007, it was a way for defendant Sebastian Mejia to save face, District Attorney Steve Tyler said.

But defense attorney Louis Martinez said investigators ignored evidence that could have led to other suspects.

"There will not be the evidence that you need to establish my client is in a criminal street gang or that he killed Derrick Quintanilla."

Mejia, 30, is charged with shooting Quintanilla and is accused of being a member of the Texas Syndicate.

Days before Quintanilla died, he and his girlfriend babysat her aunts' children, the girl's mother, Janet Sertuche, said. One of the girl's aunts was Mejia's girlfriend and lived with him, Sertuche said.

On the way home from the night out, Mejia and the aunts were in a car wreck, Sertuche said. Quintanilla picked up Mejia - who apparently fled from the wreck scene - while Sertuche met her daughter at Mejia's girlfriend's apartment.

Mejia wanted to get away from his apartment, and Sertuche didn't want the children around if he was arrested, so she took him to her 907 Guadalupe St. house, she said. Quintanilla was later shot in that house.

"He spoke about all his money being gone and his wallet being missing," Sertuche said. She searched for the wallet. "I didn't want him thinking anyone took his property while we were helping him out."

But that's what Mejia suspected, Sertuche said.

The next day, Mejia found his wallet on the kitchen table and made a profanity laced call to Sertuche, she said.

"They're going to pay and there's nothing you can do to protect them," Sertuche quoted Mejia as saying. "I've already called my boys and they do not play."

Mejia threatened Sertuche's son, daughter and Quintanilla, she said.

Quintanilla slept at Sertuche's house the night of Oct. 29 because he had an appointment at the attorney general's office the next day. Sertuche worked overnight, so Quintanilla stayed in her room, she said.

She came home from work on Oct. 30 to give her daughter a ride to school. She also woke Quintanilla, she said. Her son, a friend of Quintanilla's slept on the couch.

Less than two hours later, someone - it was unclear from Sertuche's testimony who - made an unsettling phone call to her, so she returned home.

"I was told there would be police officers up in my house," she said. The caller wanted to know if her son was at home, she said, although under cross examination she said she came home after her son called twice.

When Sertuche got home, the screen door was busted, she said. The Plexiglass window on the front door pushed in.

She began to cry, harder and harder, as she described what happened next.

She saw his feet first. When Sertuche shook Quintanilla, blood spilled from his nose. He did not respond. She screamed and called 911, she said.

Quintanilla died at DeTar Hospital that morning, his mother, Rose Arce said.

Under cross examination, Martinez focused on what Sertuche described as friction between her son and Quintanilla. Derrick's friend was upset he was dating his sister, Sertuche said.

Martinez also pointed out that Quintanilla had been in violent fights - which included baseball bats or golf clubs - before, and had tattoos that might have been gang-related.

Sertuche could not imagine her son killing Quintanilla, she said.

"There was love there," she said.

Mejia is charged with capital murder. The state is not seeking the death penalty in the case. If the jury finds him guilty of capital murder, he will be sentenced to life in prison.

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