Convicted of capital murder in the deaths of Savanah Soto, Matthew Guerra, and their unborn baby, Christopher Preciado seeks a new trial, contesting the verdict.
SAN ANTONIO — A man convicted last week of capital murder has filed a motion to request a new trial.
Christopher Preciado, 21, was found guilty in the 2023 deaths of Savanah Soto, Matthew Guerra and their unborn baby Fabian. The trial took about ten days and it a jury just two hours to decide his fate.
Friday, his lawyers, Monica Guerrero and Ross Lewis, filed a “Motion for New Trial and Motion in Arrest of Judgment.”
Soto was in final days of her pregnancy when she disappeared. A CLEAR Alert was issued on Christmas Day 2023 after she did not show up for her scheduled induction. Their bodies were found with bullet wounds four days later on Dec. 26, 2023, in a car found at a northwest-side apartment complex.
Nine days later, Christopher Preciado and his father, Ramon Preciado were booked into the Bexar County jail for the crime.
Police said at the time Christopher had planned to meet Matthew for a marijuana deal. Prosecutors alleged that Christopher planned to rob Matthew at gunpoint all along and showed evidence to support that.
During the trial, the jury saw video of Preciado’s interview with police in 2024 when he said Matthew and Savanah were killed in the chaos of him trying to defend himself. He claimed Matthew was agitated in the incident and pointed a gun at him, which Preciado says he tried to deflect, resulting in both fatal shootings. He admitted he drove Matthew’s car from his home to a nearby apartment to try to hide the bodies.
The lead detective on the case, Det. Jeremy Goodwin testified that the evidence they found does not match his story. Additionally, a medical examiner testified that the autopsy showed their gunshot wounds were consistent with an intentional shooting.
The jury was given the option to convict him of a lesser crime, like manslaughter or criminally-negligent homicide, but ultimately, the jury found him guilty of the most serious of the options, capital murder.
Since the death penalty had already been ruled out by the Bexar County district attorney, a sentence of life in prison without the possiblity of parole was applied.