SMITH COUNTY — Gustavo Zavala-Garcia, the man accused of killing 10-year-old Kayla Gomez-Orozco in November 2016, was back in court Thursday morning as lawyers on both sides of his capital murder case discuss evidence testing.
The defense and state told the court they'd come to an agreement on what additional evidence will be tested.
District Attorney Matt Bingham said he would rather err on the side of caution to have the items tested.
"This is not a decision we took lightly. We want this case tried," Bingham said. "It's our duty to seek justice and do the right thing."
A Department of Public Safety evidence analyst said he would need 60 days to go through the 10 clothing items from the victim and suspect. He started the process but will need another 53 days, he said.
The next pretrial hearing is scheduled for July 12, and 241st District Court Judge Jack Skeen said he would know then whether the scheduling order would need to be altered.
Skeen has indicated he intends to keep the case on the current scheduling order, but would need to know if DNA testing would affect the trial beginning in October.
Trace evidence, in general, can include items such as hair, fibers, soil and pollen and, in this case, was gathered from clothing and other items taken during the investigation.
Hairs recovered with the root can be tested at the DPS lab. However, hairs recovered without a root must be tested at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth.
The trace evidence section at DPS will hold the evidence, catalog and photograph it prior to sending it for DNA testing. DPS trace evidence analyst Angel Rios in a previous hearing said this process alone would take about a month.
The DNA analysis for 10-15 pieces of evidence would take about three months for the DPS lab to complete, with 35 pieces taking about six months to process from the time the trace evidence section released the evidence, according to information presented in court.
DPS DNA analyst Amber Moss said in the last pretrial conference if the evidence has to be sent to the UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth for testing she is not sure what that center's backlog is or how long it would take to do the tests.
Zavala-Garcia, who was related to Kayla by marriage, was among the last people to see her before she went missing Nov. 1, 2016, from the foyer of Bullard First Assembly on U.S. Highway 69.
Her body was found four days later in a well on the property where Zavala-Garcia lived, in the 22100 block of Farm-to-Market Road 2493 (Old Jacksonville Highway) in Bullard.
It is unclear what exactly caused her death, and at the time the indictment was released District Attorney Matt Bingham declined to comment, citing the restrictive and protective order in the case.
In the indictment, prosecutors contend Zavala-Garcia attacked Kayla and sexually assaulted or attempted to sexually assault her after her kidnapping.
Prosecutors also contend he struck Kayla with and against a blunt object, asphyxiated her and drowned her.