Adam Byrd Sentenced for the Murder of Jade Alvarez

Adam Byrd was sentenced on March 24, 2025 to 40 years in prison for the murder of his 22-year-old girlfriend, Jade Alyssa Alvarez, after pleading no contest in a Bexar County courtroom. Byrd, 25 at the time of sentencing, admitted he shot Alvarez because she refused to have a baby with him. Her family called the punishment “a slap in the face.”¹

What the Sentence Includes

Byrd appeared before Judge Christine Del Prado and pleaded no contest to all charges against him.² The plea agreement carried a 40-year term for Alvarez’s murder, two 15-year terms for aggravated robbery, and a two-year term for possession of a controlled substance. All of the sentences run concurrently, so Byrd serves them at the same time rather than one after another.¹

Under Texas law, Byrd must serve at least half of the 40-year sentence before he becomes eligible for parole. That places his earliest possible release around 2045.²

The Killing on Capitol Avenue

On the evening of April 5, 2023, Byrd used a witness’s cell phone to arrange for Alvarez to be dropped off on Capitol Avenue near Fulton Avenue in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of San Antonio. She arrived between 10:30 and 11:00 p.m.³ Byrd shot her three times, once in the abdomen and twice in the back of the head.⁴ A San Antonio patrol officer found her body in the 1000 block of Capitol Avenue around 6:30 a.m. the next morning.⁵

According to his arrest affidavit, Byrd told investigators the shooting followed an argument in which he wanted Alvarez to have a baby with him and she refused.³ He used the same handgun he had brandished four days earlier, during an April 1, 2023 armed robbery at a San Antonio store.⁴

How Police Identified Him

A witness who had been with Alvarez the night she died recognized Byrd from a photo and confirmed the two were in a relationship.⁵ Police brought Byrd in on April 12 to question him about the earlier store robbery. During that interview, a homicide detective questioned him about Alvarez’s death, and Byrd confessed, providing details investigators said matched the crime scene evidence. He was formally arrested on April 13, 2023.³

Why the Case Ended in a Plea

Criminal defense attorney Kevin Collins, commenting on the case, said the plea deal may have reflected the domestic dynamics at its center. At trial, Collins noted, the defense could have argued “sudden passion,” a legal strategy that can lower a murder charge’s sentencing range. That risk may have given prosecutors reason to accept a guaranteed 40-year term rather than take the case to a jury.⁴

The Family’s Reaction

At sentencing, Alvarez’s grandmother Rita Camacho delivered a victim impact statement telling the court the term did not fit the loss. “Forty years may be the punishment that was handed down, but to us, it’s a slap in the face,” Camacho said. “It could never truly reflect the magnitude of our loss.”¹

Camacho also spoke about Alvarez’s young son Jeremiah, who was three when his mother was killed. “Her son was left without a mother and wants to take flowers to Mama every week,” she said. Addressing Byrd, she added: “We hope that during your time in incarceration, you reflect on the devastating consequences of your actions.”¹

Who Jade Alvarez Was

Alvarez was 22 when she died. She had graduated from high school in 2018, worked in the food industry, and had plans to start college in the fall of 2023.⁶ She was the mother of a three-year-old son, Jeremiah Rodriguez. She is survived by her parents, Jonathan Alvarez and Isabel Picaso Alvarez, her brothers Jonathan and Jovanni, and her grandparents.⁵

A Prior Domestic Violence History

The killing was not Byrd’s first documented act of intimate partner harm. Court records show he had been charged with domestic violence in February 2021, two years before Alvarez’s death.⁴

Jesenia Pizarro, an associate professor of criminology at Arizona State University who studies intimate partner homicide, described Byrd’s stated motive as an example of reproductive coercion, which she defined as a form of intimate partner violence in which one partner forces the other to have a baby, have an abortion, or change their use of birth control. “A lot of this stems from the idea of control,” Pizarro said. She identified prior abuse as the single biggest risk factor for intimate partner homicide.⁴

1
KSAT. Man Gets 40 Years in Plea Deal for Girlfriend’s Murder, Family Says It’s Not Enough
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San Antonio Express-News. San Antonio Man Sentenced for Murder
3
KSAT. Man Shot, Killed Girlfriend With Handgun He Used in Store Robbery Days Earlier, SAPD Says
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A&E. Adam Byrd Killed Girlfriend for Not Wanting to Have His Baby
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News 4 San Antonio. Man Kills Girlfriend After She Refuses to Have a Baby With Him, Report Says
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Jade Alyssa Alvarez