McALLEN, Texas – Following a four-day trial, a federal jury in McAllen convicted Christopher Andrade, 32, of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, US Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani announced in a news release.
The jury deliberated for just over an hour before convicting Andrade, who is from Oxnard, California.
During the trial, the jury heard that in 2018 members of the Mexican Mafia gang organized the murder of a person who lived in Mission.
Andrade was a member of the Colonia Chiques gang and conspired with three other individuals to carry out the murder in exchange for $20,000. The others were his mother, Viola García, Noé Solís and Ronaldo Gallegos. Testimony revealed that the co-conspirators agreed to travel from California to Texas to commit the murder in exchange for payment.
On August 30, 2018, Garcia and the co-conspirators attempted to force their way into the victim’s residence, but were unsuccessful. They then attempted to flee the scene. At that point, Garcia led the officers on a high-speed chase until he crashed the vehicle.
The jury heard testimony about text messages and phone calls that Andrade had made from his phone coordinating the assassination attempt, the statement said.
The jury also heard that in July 2018 the group had tried to kill the same person.
Andrade tried to convince the jury that he was not actually the user of the phone and that he was unaware of any agreement or attempt to commit murder. The jury did not believe these claims and found him guilty of the charges against him.
District Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa presided over the trial and set sentencing for September 7. At that time, Andrade faces up to 10 years in federal prison.
Andrade has remained and will remain in custody pending that hearing.
Noah Solis, 24, and Ronaldo Gallegos, both 24 and of Oxnard, had previously pleaded guilty, while Garcia, 52, also of Oxnard, California, was found guilty by a jury in November 2022. All of them are also pending sentencing.
