DALLAS (AP) — A 33-year-old man is facing up to life in prison after a Dallas jury convicted him of a slaying prosecutors said was intended as revenge for Islamic State-linked shootings in Garland, Texas, and San Bernardino, California.
Anthony Paz Torres was charged with fatally shooting a bystander outside a Dallas tire store owned by a Muslim man. Prosecutors said 25-year-old Enrique Garcia-Mendoza was a passenger in a car getting serviced outside Omar’s Wheels and Tires on Christmas Eve 2015 when he was killed.
Authorities said Torrez returned after a confrontation a week earlier with shop employees when he ranted about Muslims.
The Dallas Morning News reports jurors who returned the murder conviction Friday heard a jailhouse phone call recording where Torres said Muslims “kill people in Garland and San Bernardino.”
