Murder of Darrell Lunsford

Murder

In the early hours of the morning on Wednesday, January 23, 1991, at approximately 1:20 a.m., Lunsford spotted a suspicious vehicle travelling along U.S. Highway 59, a white 1981 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme with Maine license plates. Lunsford pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road and turned on his dashboard camera to record the traffic stop. He then got out of his cruiser and approached the vehicle. Inside the vehicle were three men, Baldemar Sambrano Villarreal, his younger half brother, Reynaldo Sambrano Villarreal, and their accomplice, Jesus Cortez Zambrano. Lunsford questioned the driver, Reynaldo Villarreal, and asked whether he had any ID on him, to which Villarreal replied no. He claimed that he had a driver's license but did not have it on him. He also said that he was helping his brother, Baldemar, drive the car. Unbeknownst to Lunsford, the three men had loaded the car with 31 pounds of marijuana, and were driving from Houston, Texas, to Chicago, Illinois, where they planned to sell it all. At 1:27 a.m., Lunsford asked to look in the trunk of the vehicle and the men reluctantly agreed. Lunsford and Reynaldo opened the trunk and Lunsford could immediately smell the scent of marijuana.

At 1:28 a.m., Baldemar, despite being told not to, got out of the vehicle and stood with Reynaldo speaking to Lunsford. Suddenly, Baldemar grabbed Lunsford by his legs while Reynaldo grabbed him from behind. They forced Lunsford down onto the ground by the side of the car and the third suspect, Jesus Zambrano, got out to assist his two partners in crime. They then carried out a "prison takedown" on Lunsford and continued to beat and kick him while he was pinned down on the ground. They rolled him over onto his stomach, kicked him in the hip three times, stabbed him repeatedly with a knife and then grabbed his own handgun. Baldemar shot Lunsford in the neck with the handgun, severing his spinal cord and killing him instantly. Moments afterwards, the suspects moved the dead body of Lunsford into a nearby ditch. The three suspects then made a getaway in their vehicle, leaving behind the dead body of Lunsford and his police cruiser.

Victim

Darrell Edward Lunsford, Sr. (October 20, 1943 – January 23, 1991) was a police constable of Nacogdoches County, Texas. Lunsford was born on October 20, 1943, in Houston, Texas. He had one brother, who died in 1956 when Lunsford was only twelve-years-old. He married his wife, Shirley Jo Cotton, on September 29, 1962, and they had two children together. Lunsford first joined the police in 1983 and continued to serve in the force until his death in 1991. He was forty-seven-years-old at the time of his death. Lunsford is survived by his wife and two children. He is buried in Cold Springs Cemetery, in Garrison, Texas.

Aftermath

Just minutes before the murder, Sheriff's Deputy Don Welch had driven by and spotted Lunsford speaking to the men. Moments after the murder, Welch witnessed the suspects speed past him in their vehicle. Welch immediately drove back to the spot where Lunsford had been and found his dead body. Welch radioed for help, and at around 2:00 a.m., Chief Deputy Stanaland, another colleague of Lunsford, found them both. Stanaland noticed the video camera in Lunsford's cruiser. He rewound the video, watched it over and then made a copy of it. The three suspects, realizing Welch had spotted them, abandoned their vehicle less than a mile from the town of Garrison. They then fled on foot, taking the marijuana with them. Their vehicle was found later in the day.

Throughout the morning, the police analysed the videotape and were able to identify the three killers. Reynaldo Villarreal was found later in the day when a highway patrolman spotted him walking near the edge of a wooded area. He was arrested and charged with murder. Baldemar Villarreal was captured and arrested two days later and Jesus Zambrano was captured a week later. All three suspects were then tried and convicted with Lunsford's murder.

The actual shooter who fired the gun was identified as Baldemar Sambrano Villarreal. He was spared the death penalty but was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. His younger half brother, Reynaldo Sambrano Villarreal, was sentenced to forty-years in prison for his role in the murder. The third suspect, Jesus Zambrano, pleaded guilty to his role in the murder and received a thirty-year prison sentence.

The entire incident was captured by the dashboard camera in Lunsford's cruiser. This videotape enabled the police to arrest the three killers. The video is now used when training new officers. The videotape teaches them what to do if they ever get into a difficult situation like this.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Baldemar Sambrano Villarreal is due to spend the remainder of his life in prison and is to never be released. He is incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution in Beaumont, Texas under registry number 03367-078. Reynaldo Sambrano Villarreal is incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas under registry number 03368-078. His release date is set for July 29, 2026, meaning he will have served thirty-five-years of his original forty-year prison sentence. Jesus Cortez Zambrano is incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution in Oxford, Wisconsin under registry number 03362-078. His release date is set for February 3, 2018, meaning he will have served twenty-seven-years of his original thirty-year prison sentence.

Effects of the video

Andy Lopez, Jr. was a Texas state trooper stationed in Refugio, Texas who watched the video of Lunsford's murder. Eight months later, around 10:08 p.m., on September 21, 1991, a Saturday night, Lopez pulled over a suspicious vehicle along U.S. Highway 77 in Refugio. Similar to the events surrounding Lunsford's murder, three Hispanic males were transporting a large amount of marijuana in the trunk of the car. While they initially allowed Lopez to inspect the trunk, one of the suspects attempted to draw a handgun.

Lopez was able to react quickly to the assailant, knocking him off balance while drawing his own weapon, then firing and taking cover. The armed suspect was wounded, while the two remaining suspects fled on foot under cover of darkness. The armed suspect continued to fire on Lopez, who used strategic cover and motion while returning fire. Another trooper, then south of Lopez, responded to his call for backup. The armed suspect died from multiple gunshot wounds before help arrived. Lopez had not been severely injured, having been grazed only once.

A manhunt for the other two suspects was conducted throughout the night and into the next day, when police located the two remaining suspects, who had been hiding in the woods; they were arrested without incident. The shootout between Lopez and the gunman had been videotaped by a camera in Lopez's cruiser. After the incident, Lopez told authorities that he believed the video of Lunsford's murder is what had saved his life that night. The video had helped him deal with the three suspects and he had learned not to make the same mistakes that Lunsford had made eight months earlier. For his actions, Trooper Lopez was awarded the Texas Department of Public Safety Medal of Valor, the highest award a commissioned trooper can receive.