The murder trial for a 24-year-old Mesquite man accused of killing a woman is underway.
Ruben Alvarado is accused of killing 26-year-old Chynal Lindsey after beating and strangling the woman in June 2019.
Monday marked the first day of the trial held at the Frank Crowley Criminal Courts Building. Prosecutors showed a Dallas County Jury graphic evidence in the killing of Lindsey, whose birth name was Jason Haslett.
A Dallas County Assistant District Attorney, Melody Louis, told the jury that the trial would focus more on the actions of Alvarado.
Louis told jurors that the case is not about the victim’s choice to live as a transgender woman, but about Alvarado’s actions and choices. Louis added that the case is about the violence Alvarado “allowed to explode” on the victim.
Louis also told jurors they will see text messages between the victim and Alvarado on May 31 before he picked her up in Arlington and drove them back to his apartment in Mesquite. Louis also told jurors that blood evidence showed Lindsey had been in the backseat of Alvarado’s car.
Prosecutors plan to show jurors GPS cell phone data on Alvarado’s phone that placed him around White Rock Lake before stopping at the spot where Calvin Torrance found the victim’s body.
Torrance told jurors he and his two children were at the lake when he saw a hand in the water. Torrance said he called another person to confirm and then called 911.
Defense attorneys Richard Franklin and Robbie McClung declined to give an opening statement before prosecutors started calling their witnesses.
If convicted of the first-degree murder charge, Alvarado could be sentenced to between five to ninety-nine years or life in prison.