A - Z Blogging Challenge 04.11.2026

 

Welcome, friends!! Hope you are enjoying some YOU time this weekend.  We don't have much planned other than PC's baseball game on Saturday morning.  Hope we will make it to church.  It has been a few weeks.

In this alphabetical blog series, I am up to letter J.  So today we will be looking at the glimmers or little blessings in my life that begin with that rather obscure letter.  Thinking of something that would work for J was toughy tough tough.  I ran through all kinds of J words - Jell-o, jam, jokes, jealousy, jabs, jiggly, jewelry.  None of them felt right.  I have lots to be grateful for but it was very hard to think of something in particular that began with J.

I poured over this list of 450+ words beginning with J. Finally, I came upon the right word.  Jury as in jury duty.  Let me explain more.

J is for Jury Duty

I have gone back and forth today about how much to write for this post about my jury duty experience in 04.2025.  Have decided in keeping with earlier A -Z challenge posts, I will keep this post short (which is relative because none of my posts are ever really short).  A few weeks after I served on the jury that convicted Kyle Austin Lopez of the manslaughter death of Alfredo Chavez, I started writing about this experience.  I had a lot of feelings and needed some way to release them or set them aside.  

My experience on jury duty was emotional and nerve-racking.  I didn't sleep well while serving on the jury and for about a week afterward.  While I had served on a couple of civil court juries, I had never been on a criminal trial.  When I received my jury summons, I was very concerned that I was being considered for the jury for the Walmart shooter Patrick Crusius.  Crusius was being tried that same month for the mass shooting of 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in 08.2019.

Thank goodness, I wasn't considered or selected for the Crusius trial but I was placed on the jury for Kyle Austin Lopez's trial.  On the first day at court, the jury was notified that this was a murder trial and my stomach was immediately tied in knots.  

You may remember that I like to watch trials on YouTube hosted by Court TV and Law & Crime.  In some ways, I was kind of excited about being on a jury. But determining someone's guilt or innocence felt like a huge responsibility.  One that I wouldn't take lightly.  And I hoped the same could be said about the other 11 jurors.

Making the Most of a Bad Situation

After the jury was seated and opening statements were given by the defense and the prosecution on Wednesday, 04.02.2025, the actual trial continued for most of 2 days and was turned over to the jury mid-day on Friday, 04.04.2025.  I didn't know what to expect as we began to deliberate.  We talked a little while to get a feel for what everyone was thinking and feeling about the case and then we took a very preliminary vote on the charges.  All but 2 of the jurors thought the defendant should be found guilty of something varying from murder to manslaughter.  I imagined that we would debate a few minutes, take another vote and the majority of us would quickly convince the minority to move toward a guilty verdict.  But that wasn't the case.

We studied and reexamined the video footage from the Ring doorbell that captured the events leading up to and then including Alfredo Chavez's shooting.  What had seemed pretty crystal clear to me going into the deliberation room began blurring a little.  

The jury was made up of 5 women and 7 men, with one female alternate juror.  I was probably the second oldest juror.  Most of those on the panel were in their mid-40s, I would say.  And most everyone on the jury was Hispanic with the exception of one other middle-aged woman and a younger man.  We got along very well, were respectful of each other's thoughts and opinions and took time to listen to everyone's point of view.  

In the end, all of us met in the middle with a verdict of manslaughter, and we sentenced Kyle Austin Lopez to 30 years in prison.  

A Hopeful Ending

I hope to share on Substack the essay I wrote right after this experience.  But this experience left me feeling hopeful for all of those involved in this crime.

Lopez was a prior offender who had paroled out of prison early twice before for good behavior.  We wanted to send him a message that it was time for him to get his act together.  By sentencing Lopez to 30 years, he would not be eligible for parole until he has served at least 7.5 years.  The jurors all agreed that by that time, all of his 5 children would be young adults.  And that maybe they would learn from their father's mistakes and not follow down the same road of lifelong criminal activity and poor decisions.  Because Lopez was given 2 years off his sentence for time served while awaiting trial he will actually be eligible for parole even earlier.  

The experience of working with other jurors was an uplifting one.  It restored my faith in humanity a little.  I have long said El Pasoans are the best kind of folks.  This experience further convinced me of that.

I have prayed that during this, Lopez's third prison sentence, he will finally get his life together.  That his children will be stronger and better off for not having had Lopez in their day-to-day life and will avoid making mistakes similar to those of their father.  I guess that is where the glimmer comes in.  Maybe it isn't necessarily a glimmer in my life but I pray this was a glimmer in Kyle Lopez's life.  I hope that we played some part in changing Kyle Austin Lopez's life for the better.

I hope that doesn't seem self-serving.  

Your Turn

Have you ever been seated on a jury?  If so, on what kind of a trial did you serve?  How would you describe your experience?

Off to bed, girls.  I am actually ahead of this A - Z blogging game for a hot minute.  Hope to get a few posts written this weekend so I can stay caught up.  Fingers crossed.

Thank you for visiting today.  Please leave a comment below so I can thank you personally for stopping by.  

Hugs and kisses,