The conviction of Christopher Preciado closed the trial, but relatives of Savanah Soto and Matthew Guerra said the loss still reaches far beyond the courtroom.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — The killing of Savanah Soto, who was days away from giving birth, first became public when she did not show up for her Dec. 22, 2023, induction appointment. More than two years later, a jury convicted Christopher Preciado of capital murder and sent him to prison for life without parole.
From the start, the case carried two timelines at once. One was legal, involving an alleged drug deal, a homicide investigation and a capital murder trial. The other was personal, centered on a young couple and the baby they expected to name Fabian. That second timeline stayed visible even after the guilty verdict on March 26, when family members used the courtroom not just to react to a sentence but to describe the future they said had been erased when Soto, Guerra and Fabian were killed.
Soto was 18. Guerra was 22. Their relatives expected the days before Christmas in 2023 to bring a birth, not a search. After Soto missed the medical appointment and neither family could reach the couple, concern deepened quickly. Authorities issued a CLEAR Alert on Dec. 25. The next day, police found the pair dead in Guerra’s car behind a building in the 5900 block of Danny Kaye Drive. Soto was in the front seat. Guerra was in the back. Both had gunshot wounds to the head. The discovery changed the public story at once, from a missing pregnant teen case into a double homicide with the unborn child counted among the dead.
Investigators said the meeting that preceded the killings was tied to a marijuana sale. According to the arrest affidavit, Christopher Preciado later told police that Guerra had pointed a gun at him and that he “manipulated” the weapon, causing Soto to be shot, then did the same when Guerra threatened him. Detectives said the evidence did not back that version. Instead, prosecutors argued at trial that Preciado killed the couple during a robbery, then stole money and jewelry and worked with relatives to move the bodies and abandon the car. They supported that theory with witness testimony, surveillance footage, phone evidence and proof that rings belonging to Guerra later surfaced in a car-parts exchange.
The case widened as investigators followed what happened after the shootings. Surveillance near Danny Kaye Drive showed a Chevrolet Silverado arriving with the victims’ vehicle shortly before midnight on Dec. 21, 2023, police said. Investigators tied that truck to the Preciado family. They said Ramon Preciado helped his son dispose of the bodies and wipe down the vehicle. Myrta Romanos was also accused of joining the effort to conceal the crime, though prosecutors later dropped the charges against her. Christopher Preciado was arrested Jan. 3, 2024, at age 19. His father was also arrested. By the time the case reached trial in 2026, Christopher Preciado was 21 and the prosecution had chosen not to seek the death penalty.
Inside the courtroom, the state and defense offered very different ways to read the evidence. Defense lawyers said there was no eyewitness, no video from inside the car and no direct DNA or gunshot residue evidence proving Preciado fired the shots. Prosecutors said the larger record mattered more than any single missing item. They called 36 witnesses. They pointed to close-range gunshot findings, the movement of the car, the wiping of the door and the transfer of Guerra’s rings after the killings. Jurors took less than two hours to decide. Their unanimous verdict meant Judge Jennifer Pena had no sentencing choice other than life without parole.
Then came the part of the hearing most connected to the story’s beginning. Soto’s grandmother told Preciado he would regret what he had done to her granddaughter. Soto’s cousin said the two had planned to raise their children together, a plan she said ended with the murders. Guerra’s father spoke of the way his son’s birth changed his own life. Guerra’s brother, Sabian Hernandez, later said outside court that the family felt Soto, Guerra and Fabian had been vindicated. Those statements pulled the case away from the language of affidavits and back toward the people who had expected to welcome a child in December 2023.
As for the defense, Preciado has filed a motion for a new trial, with a hearing set for June 10, and the related case against Ramon Preciado remains pending. The verdict closed the trial, but not every remaining legal step in the case.
Author note: Last updated April 19, 2026.