A 29-year-old Houston man who shot to death the teen he preyed upon has since been sentenced to more than 70 years in prison this week.
On September 12, 2018, a jury found Irbin Vargas guilty of killing 16-year-old Lourdes Sandoval outside her home.
Vargas, 22, had been in a relationship with Sandoval for nearly a year before the shooting. According to her friends and family, she wanted to quit her relationship with him after he threatened her life and held a gun to her head.
“No one should ever lose their life to domestic violence, and this case is especially tragic because this woman was so young and had so much to live for—we mourn her loss with her family,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said.
On the night of the murder, Vargas and Sandoval were texting. She notified him via text that she no longer wanted anything to do with him. About five minutes later, she was walking out of her Greenspoint home to meet a friend who was waiting in his car.
The companion saw Sandoval exit the townhouse, and Vargas appeared from the shadows to attack her from behind, fatally shooting her in the head.
Houston police officers eventually apprehended Vargas after he ran.
A five-day trial in November resulted in Vargas’s murder conviction. On Tuesday, a judge chose to punish Vargas and sentenced him to 75 years in prison.
Assistant District Attorney Philip White, a chief in the DA’s Office’s Homicide Division, and ADA Matthew Magill, assigned to the Trial Bureau, prosecuted Vargas jointly.
“He was a 22-year-old predator who worked to get close to a teenage girl,” White said. “Five minutes after she told him that it was over for good, he killed her.”
Vargas must serve at least 30 years in prison before being eligible for release.