Prosecutors rested their case in a Bexar County criminal trial before Judge Stephanie Boyd of the 187th District Court after presenting fingerprint comparisons, a recorded telephone call and testimony from multiple witnesses who placed a man holding a firearm near a car that witnesses said was fired upon.

The case centers on an incident investigators say occurred Oct. 10, 2022; the defendant, Dominique Nicholson, is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm. Prosecutors told jurors that testimony and physical evidence introduced at trial met the elements required by the court’s charge; the defense urged jurors to find reasonable doubt, citing investigative gaps and the absence of a recovered firearm or spent shell casings at the scene.

Nut graf: Why this matters — jurors will decide whether the state has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Nicholson threatened imminent bodily injury by using or exhibiting a deadly weapon and whether he possessed a firearm while prohibited from doing so. If convinced, jurors could convict on aggravated assault; the trial also includes a felony possession count tied to a prior conviction listed in the record.

Most important evidence and testimony

- Fingerprint comparison: Andrew Kodiari, a fingerprint examiner with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, testified about the laboratory process used to compare prints and said examiners look for at least 12 characteristic points. Kodiari told the court he compared a “drop card” the office collected at the hearing to prints from a Texas Department of Criminal Justice packet and concluded the prints came from the same individual. “We have to find at least 12 points,” Kodiari said on the stand.

- Phone-recording evidence: Sylvia Castillo, a records custodian for IC Solutions, testified that the company’s call-recording system logs a unique call sequence number and an ID/passcode associated with callers. Castillo testified that a recording marked State’s Exhibit 38 was made Oct. 12, 2022, at 19:22 (military time) from the phone number 210-758-6027, and that the system’s records indicated the call used the defendant’s ID and passcode; the court admitted the recording (marked 38A) after resolving foundation and hearsay objections.

- Crime-scene and investigative testimony: Investigator Fermin Guzman of the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office described responding to the reported shooting, interviewing witnesses and canvassing the area. Guzman testified that the victim’s vehicle had a defect consistent with a bullet hole above the license plate and that a projectile was later recovered from a tire. He said officers executed a search warrant at 8619 Key North Way; the investigators photographed a gap in a backyard fence that Guzman called large enough to pass a firearm (offered as State’s Exhibit 43). Guzman also said no firearms were recovered at the searched address and that no shell casings were found at the scene.

- Eyewitnesses: Neighbor Juan Melendez testified that, as he stopped near his house, “I saw the man with the weapon.” The complainant/witness who was inside the car, identified in court as Jayla Satterwhite, testified she heard gunfire, turned and saw a man with a weapon raise his arm toward the vehicle and ducked for safety. Investigator Guzman and other law-enforcement witnesses described additional interviews and the canvass for possible video (including a Ring geofence search) that produced no footage of the shooting.

Defense argument and cross-examination

Defense counsel stressed that investigators did not recover a firearm at the scene or any spent shell casings and that a gunshot residue (GSR) test technician gave an indeterminate result when asked whether the defendant had handled or been in close proximity to a fired weapon. Defense counsel also highlighted investigative steps the defense said were missed or weakened evidence — for example, that a tire containing a projectile was driven away by the vehicle’s owner and later turned over to investigators days afterward — and argued that officers did not fully identify or interview other neighbors who were present and who, defense counsel said, matched general descriptions of people near the scene.

Courtroom rulings and case status

Judge Stephanie Boyd overruled several defense objections to the admission of exhibits and testimony and ruled that certain recordings and certification packets were admissible as business records or otherwise properly authenticated. The state formally rested its case; the defense then rested and both sides presented closing arguments to jurors. The judge read the court’s charge explaining the elements for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm, including the statutory provisions the jury must apply.

What’s next

After closing arguments and instructions, the jury will begin deliberations. No verdict had been announced in court at the time prosecutors rested.

Reporting notes: Quotations and attributions in this account come from courtroom testimony and rulings during proceedings before Judge Stephanie Boyd in the 187th District Court, Bexar County. No verdict had been returned as of the close of the state’s case.