Gerardo Alvarez, a 46-year-old Texas man, was sentenced to 30 years in prison this week after pleading guilty to the murder of his former boss, Todd Fenton.
Fenton, 48, was Alvarez’s supervisor at the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District when he was shot multiple times inside a school district bus barn in October 2013.
After Alvarez was identified as a suspect due to surveillance video, he fled to Mexico and remained a fugitive until he was arrested by Mexican authorities in 2020. He was extradited to Texas in 2021 and pleaded guilty before his trial was set to begin the following month.
Alvarez’s lawyer, Hugo Aguilar, said that his client “thought it’d be best to just take the 30 years and avoid a trial.” Unfortunately, Fenton’s wife, Kathy Fenton, passed away in March 2023 and was unable to see justice served for the devastating loss of her husband.
The Carrollton police press release noted that the case was a “lengthy and complex investigation” that involved multiple agencies and jurisdictions. It was a difficult case to solve, but the police were ultimately able to bring Alvarez to justice.