DA may pursue killing as a hate crime

AUSTIN (KXAN) - According to court documents, the Aviles and Hurtado families have been at odds for months.

Monday night was the fourth time in the last eight months Austin police had stepped in to try to help.

Twice last fall, they showed on Dixie Drive after things got out of hand between Jose Aviles and his daughter's girlfriend -- and then again, just three weeks before a deadly shooting.

Witnesses say Aviles, 59, was drunk when he showed up at the house of his daughter's girlfriend, Norma Hurtado, and asked for his own daughter. When she did not come to the door he shot Norma and her mother, Maria Hurtado.

A friend told police she saw a text message Norma showed her a month ago where Aviles threatened to kill her and her mother because of the lesbian relationship.

"My first reaction was this was a hate crime," said Dennis Coleman, Executive Director of Equality Texas , who lobbies for hate crime laws.

Coleman said out of 1,800 hate crime cases in Texas, only six people have been prosecuted for it under the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act .

The Aviles case could become number seven. The district attorney's office is still waiting for Austin police to wrap up their investigation before deciding on whether or not to add a hate crime allegation to the capital murder case.

"Basically the jury would have to determine beyond a reasonable doubt that this defendant selected this victim based on his bias or prejudice against her sexual preference," said Travis County Prosecutor Jackie Wood.

She is on the county's new Hate Crime Task Force and has been chosen to take on all future hate crime cases.

Right now, if a case is tried as a hate crime the punishment can go up. It would not make a difference in Monday's shooting case because the DA's office is already going after the toughest penalty - life or death.

It would be added to the city's statistics and action against hate crime cases.

Austin City Council member Randi Shade, also a member of the Hate Crime Task Force, emailed the following statement:

I am deeply troubled to hear about Monday night's double homicide of a young lesbian woman and her mother in Southeast Austin.

 

The Austin Police Department's Victim Services Team has been working with the families of the victims, and several community partners have stepped up to assist. I expect the Austin Police Department and the Travis County District Attorney to work hard to get the facts and pursue this case to the fullest extent possible.

 

As a leader of our community's newly formed Hate Crimes Taskforce, it is clear that we need to work harder than ever to come together as a community to condemn any and all incidents that are motivated by hate, discrimination and prejudice.

 

Again, I am very upset by Monday night's senseless crime against a mother and her daughter. Our city does not tolerate family violence in any form. I grieve with their family and with the entire community. I pray for justice and the opportunity for all of us to live in a community free of hate.