A judge denied two motions made on Monday to declare another mistrial in the murder trial of an Alamo man charged in the 2020 murder of a Donna High School student.

Carlos Contreras, 23, is charged in the death of 18-year-old Genaro Isaiah “Izzy” Castillo. He died on Jan. 12, 2020 and his body was found near Donna Lake by a field worker.

According to previous reports, Contreras was arrested after bullet casings were found in his truck, and investigators learned that Contreras and Castillo had been arguing over money linked to “criminal activity.”

On Monday, jurors heard again from Jorge Veliz, the man that a witness previously testified was the one actually responsible for Castillo’s death.

PREVIOUS TRIAL COVERAGE: Witness in Donna murder claims he tried to report the crime to police

During his testimony, Veliz said he is currently on probation on human smuggling charges, and the defense argued that Veliz was asked to testify in exchange for having his human smuggling charges dismissed. 

The state asked Veliz if he was promised anything for his testimony, and Veliz said no. Veliz was dismissed from the stand, but is subject to be recalled by the state.

Lucio Torres — the investigator with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office — also took to the stand. He was the investigator who interrogated Contreras following his arrest, and jurors saw video of that interview in court Monday.

In the video, Contreras said he and Castillo would do human smuggling jobs for Veliz, and he completed a job for him a week prior to the murder.

Contreras was also heard telling Torres that Veliz asked him to “hang out” to try out a gun. They both picked up Castillo and went to Donna Lake.

That’s when Contreras told investigators that Veliz “turned the gun” and shot Castillo and threatened Contreras to not tell anyone.

On Thursday, Contreras’ common-law-wife testified that Veliz forced Contreras to fatally shoot Castillo. The woman, Miranda Luna, was the subject of a mistrial that was declared on Sept. 12 after Contrera’s defense team said prosecutors failed to inform them that Luna was offered full immunity for her testimony.

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The trial restarted on Sept. 15. On Monday, The defense made two motions for a mistrial to impeach Luna’s testimony, and claimed that prosecutors were bringing up evidence not allowed in the courtroom.

The judge denied the motions.  

Testimony will continue Tuesday morning. 

Watch the video above for the full story.