Tuesday, April 29, 2008
The matriarch of a prominent San Antonio family was murdered last week. Yesterday at her funeral, her son offered to pay for the defense of her killer. I heard him interviewed on the local talk radio station yesterday afternoon and it was incredible. Their lawyers have told him he can't do that because of "conflict of interest", but he explained his reasoning. He said that he was following Jesus' teachings: loving his enemies, forgiving others, and doing unto the "least of these" as he would to Jesus. The radio host said, "Jesus is my Lord and Savior too, but all I would want is 5 minutes alone with the guy." "Yeah," Mr. Barrios said, "but you'd be doing it to Jesus."
It was incredible.
Viola Barrios' Family Offers To Pay Legal Fees For Her Accused Killer
Family and friends said their final goodbyes to Viola Barrios, owner of the famed Los Barrios Restaurant. Those attending her emotional funeral witnessed an amazing act of forgiveness.
Not only are the Barrios' forgiving the family who's son is charged with Viola's murder, they're now helping the Estrada's defend their son by offering to pay for his legal fees.
"The Estradas can't afford it, but the Barrios family can," Louis explained. "And we are asking Roy, Junior and Bobby, to defend Joey Estrada, Jr.
One of the attorneys Barrios wanted to defend Estrada said he cannot represent the teen.
"It would be a conflict of interest. It would be awkward. If Estrada ended up getting the death penalty, some would question whether the Barrios paid a lawyer to ensure that happened," said Roy Barrera, Sr., a lawyer.
Louis Barrios remembered his mother Viola in a tearful goodbye at her funeral Monday.
"My mother died Wednesday night/Thursday morning, and then I came to the conclusion that the person that loved me the most is gone. I cried like a baby," said Louis Barrios.
Although his heart was filled with sadness, the people who packed church soon found out it still had enough room for forgiveness.
"The Estrada family will always be a part of our family," Louis said.
Louis Barrios said the court fees to defend Joey Estrada, Jr. are expected to be more than $100,000.
Joey Estrada, Jr. is still in jail on a $1-million bond.
The 18-year-old was arrested Friday. He lived next door to barrios.
A court date for Estrada has not been set.
Here's a personal account from someone who went to the funeral.
What spoke to me, both literally and figuratively, was Louis Barrios, son of Viola. He spoke with deep passion and conviction in his faith in Christ-That is where the victory comes in...
Yesterday he went next door, to the home of Joey Estrada, his mother's murderer.
He went to extend a hand of forgiveness and prayer
But, then he went even further...he begged us through tears, to "please pray for Joey and his family. He didn't know what he was doing"
Read this for more details. It's an incredible story.
But Monday afternoon, Bobby Barrera said he and his brother had declined to take the case, deciding it would be a conflict of interest because of their relationship to Viola Barrios and her family.
Viola Barrios, 76, founder of Los Barrios Mexican Restaurant in 1979 and La Hacienda de los Barrios in 2004, was slain last week in her Northwest Side home. Her badly burned body, with “potential trauma” to her head, according to an arrest affidavit, was found in her bedroom, a trail of accelerant from her bed to the hallway.
On Friday, Estrada, a former athlete on Churchill's track team who grew up next door to Barrios, was charged with her slaying.
While Estrada remained jailed Monday on a $1 million bond, his parents attended the funeral of their son's alleged victim. Afterward, Louis Barrios and his sister Diana Barrios Trevino embraced Joe and Dorothy Estrada and invited them to sit with the Barrios family at the graveside service at San Fernando Cemetery.
There, beneath a bright morning sun, the siblings wrapped their arms around the weeping Estradas, holding their hands as Barrios' coffin was lowered.
“The Barrios family lost our mother. The Estrada family lost their son,” Louis Barrios said. “These were my mother's neighbors, my mother's friends. When they moved in next door six years ago, she greeted them with tamales. ... We need each other, we're united, we forgive him.” Forgiveness — and celebration of Barrios' life — were the recurrent themes during the services.
Because she was so quick to forgive, Louis Barrios told Bobby Barrera that the family does not want Estrada to face the death penalty, as Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed suggested last week, saying at a Friday news conference that she would like to “string” up the suspect herself.
“As he put it, ‘I know it would be my mother's desire that this boy not be put to death,'” Barrera said.
On Monday, those who attended Viola Barrios' funeral instead focused on her life and the generous offer made by her son, however short-lived it was.
Speaking of 19th-century Russian author Leo Tolstoy, who gave his money to the poor, Mayor Phil Hardberger said, “It was truly an amazing, Tolstoyan gesture.”
“It shows something of the heart of our city, but it comes through the heart of her family, her teaching and her spirit,” he said.
Yolanda Arellano, executive director of the San Antonio Restaurant Association, who had earlier referred the matriarch's “love for her children, God and country,” said she was not surprised at Louis Barrios' gesture toward the Estrada family.
“He was his mother's son. She always had a big heart,” Arellano said.
I must say again that hearing Louis Barrios cite scripture about love and forgiveness in the face of his mother's murder was incredible thing.
Everyone knows that you must forgive others who have wronged you. BUT, there is a grieving process one must go through that takes time before you can reach that level. This is the second tragedy to hit the family. Was he thinking of his father's untimely death when he spoke? This is sooooo premature. He must have had nonstop counseling between talking to the press every 30 minutes and arranging the ceremonies. Where did he have the time?