Inset: Lydia Morales (Obituary). Background: David Grejtak appears in Bexar County, Texas, court (KSAT/YouTube).Â
A Texas man has learned where he will spend the coming decades of his life after shooting and killing his neighbor following an argument.
David Grejtak, 56, was sentenced on Friday to 30 years in prison, the Bexar County District Attorney”s Office announced. He was found guilty in July of murdering 44-year-old Lydia Morales in 2023.
On Sept. 12, 2023, Morales invited members of her family over to her apartment in San Antonio. They were drinking and playing loud music, according to testimony read at the trial, the San Antonio Express-News reported.
At one point in the night, the family heard a noise come from the apartment beneath them – Grejtak’s unit. The family started to leave, but some of them didn’t make it out of the building before passing by the neighbor’s apartment.
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The boyfriend of Morales’ daughter is said to have waited outside of Grejtak’s door for his girlfriend to come downstairs, and while doing so, made a “gesture” to the peephole. Grejtak left his apartment armed with a gun, and a “verbal altercation” broke out, the DA’s office said. Grejtak was reportedly upset about the level of noise coming from his neighbor’s apartment.
The defendant reportedly fell and was on the ground when Morales and her daughter exited Morales’ apartment. As he and the boyfriend continued arguing, Morales saw Grejtak on the ground and moved to put herself in between the armed man and her family members.
And this is when the shot was fired.
“All she can say is ‘what’s going on’ before the defendant shoots her,” a prosecutor said at the trial, according to the newspaper. “He shoots her in the right side of her chest.”
A prosecutor detailed how Grejtak wasted next to no time before becoming violent.
“Mr. Grejtak had had enough of Ms. Morales not doing what he wanted her to do, which was be quiet,” Melissa Rust said at the recent trial, according to courtroom video from local ABC affiliate KSAT. “The video evidence is so clear that we’re talking about seconds from her coming down those stairs to being shot.”
The District Attorney’s Office noted how Grejtak claimed he shot the woman in self-defense, “alleging that he believed Morales intended to stab him.”
The case first went to trial in May but ended in a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
Another trial began, and a new jury found Grejtak guilty in July, “stating that the evidence presented did not prove his actions were justified.”
“Though today’s sentencing is a painful reminder of an act of senseless violence, it proves that we will never waver in our fight for justice,” Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said in a statement. “I would like to thank the jury for their diligent efforts in securing this conviction, and our team for their dedication in achieving a just decision that can bring some measure of closure to Lydia’s loved ones.”
