What Happened to Savannah Soto: Verdict, Sentence, and Lawsuit

Savanah Soto was an eighteen-year-old from San Antonio who vanished with her boyfriend Matthew Guerra on December 21, 2023, one day before she was scheduled to be induced for the birth of their son. Five days later, both were found shot to death inside Guerra’s car, along with their unborn child. What happened to Savanah Soto became clearer over the next two years: in March 2026, a Bexar County jury convicted nineteen-year-old Christopher Preciado of three counts of capital murder and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.¹

The Disappearance and Discovery

Soto was nine months pregnant and overdue when she and Guerra failed to show up for her hospital induction appointment. She was last seen near the 6000 block of Grissom Road in the Leon Valley area of northwest San Antonio around 2 p.m. on December 22, 2023. On Christmas Day, after the family could not reach her, the Texas Department of Public Safety issued a CLEAR Alert stating her disappearance posed a “credible threat” to her health and safety.²

The next afternoon, December 26, the bodies were found inside Guerra’s gray Kia Optima, parked at the Colinas at Medical Apartments about three miles from where Soto was last seen. A witness who reached the car saw Soto in the passenger seat, covered in debris, with a baby carrier resting on her belly. Guerra was in the backseat.³ The Bexar County Medical Examiner determined that both died from gunshot wounds to the head and ruled the deaths homicides. Their unborn son, whom the family had planned to name Fabian, also died. Police Chief William McManus said the bodies appeared to have been inside the vehicle for several days before they were discovered.²

Who Killed Them, and Why

Prosecutors alleged that Christopher Preciado arranged to meet Guerra on the evening of December 21 to buy marijuana, but the meeting was a pretext. Preciado was broke, knew Guerra carried cash and jewelry, and intended to rob him. According to the state, within one minute of climbing into the backseat of Guerra’s car, Preciado shot both victims in the head at contact range, with the muzzle pressed directly against their skin.⁴

Motive came from Preciado’s own phone. On December 20, he messaged someone promising to repay a debt by Friday and asked about the cost of a car battery. On December 22, the day after the killings, he messaged the same person about two rings, one possibly a Versace brand. Investigators testified that rings belonging to Guerra were pawned in the days after the murders and the proceeds were used to buy new tires. Guerra’s wallet, his rings, and Soto’s purse were all missing from the car when it was found.⁵

Detectives tied Preciado to the scene through surveillance video, cell phone records, and the pickup truck registered to his family. Police released a 79-second security clip showing the victims’ Kia and a dark-colored Chevrolet Silverado in a parking lot; occupants exited both vehicles, spoke briefly, and one person used a white towel to wipe the car door before leaving. Soto’s phone, recovered from the vehicle, helped trace the truck to a home on Charlie Chan Drive belonging to the Preciado family.⁴ After the shootings, prosecutors said, Preciado moved Guerra’s body to the backseat, drove the car to an apartment complex less than a mile from his home, abandoned it, and hid at his parents’ house for thirteen days before his arrest on January 3, 2024.³

The Self-Defense Claim

Preciado pleaded not guilty. According to his arrest affidavit, he told police that Guerra pulled a gun on him during the drug deal and that he was able to “manipulate it,” resulting in the shootings. His attorneys, Joseph Esparza and Monica Guerrero, emphasized that no eyewitness, video footage, gunshot residue, fingerprints, or DNA directly linked Preciado to pulling the trigger. In closing arguments, Esparza told the jury: “We don’t know what exactly happened in the vehicle that night.”⁶

Prosecutors countered that contact-range gunshot wounds are inconsistent with a struggle. Co-prosecutor Ross Lewis told the jury: “Three deaths. $300… you cannot rob someone in self-defense.” Prosecutor Melissa Alban argued the absent forensic evidence reflected Preciado wiping the scene clean.⁶

Conviction and Sentence

The trial, presided over by Judge Jennifer Pena in Bexar County’s 290th Criminal District Court, lasted seven days. The jury deliberated roughly one hour and fifty-six minutes on March 26, 2026, before returning guilty verdicts on all three counts of capital murder.¹

The conviction carried an automatic sentence of life without parole because the Bexar County District Attorney’s Capital Crimes Committee had decided in April 2025 not to seek the death penalty. The DA’s office said the committee, made up of at least seven division chiefs and the elected District Attorney, weighed the facts of the case, the suspect’s criminal history, mitigating evidence, and the legal requirement that a death-penalty jury find the defendant to be a continuing threat to society. The families of the victims had publicly protested that decision. Gabriel Guerra, Matthew’s father, said at the time: “He took three lives, and the least we can do is take his.”⁷

On March 27, 2026, Preciado filed a motion for a new trial and a notice of appeal. Under Texas procedural rules, a hearing on the motion must occur by June 10, 2026. As of late March 2026, no hearing date had been set.⁸

What Happened to the Other Two Defendants

Christopher’s father Ramon Preciado and stepmother Myrta Romanos were both charged with helping conceal the bodies. Neither was charged with the murders themselves.

Romanos was charged with tampering with a human corpse, abuse of a corpse, and tampering with physical evidence, after police identified her on surveillance footage handing a towel to Christopher at the scene.⁹ She spent roughly two years in custody. On November 5, 2025, the day her trial was to begin, prosecutors twice asked Judge Pena for a continuance, citing a prosecutor’s family member’s declining health and the need for additional forensic analysis of a handgun. Both requests were denied and the charges were dismissed. The DA’s office said the case was “dismissed for further investigation” and left open the possibility of refiling.¹⁰ The Soto family said they were not notified by the DA’s office and learned about the dismissal through social media.¹¹

Ramon Preciado remains charged with tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. Initially held on a $600,000 bond, he was released from jail in February 2025 after his bond was reduced. His trial was scheduled for February 2, 2026, according to a court listing, though the families indicated at the time of Christopher’s conviction that they were still waiting to see what would happen with Ramon’s case.¹²

The Family’s Civil Lawsuit

In late March 2025, Gabriel Guerra and Gloria Cordova, parents of the victims, filed a civil lawsuit in Bexar County against Christopher Preciado, Ramon Preciado, and Myrta Romanos. The suit alleges the defendants tampered with evidence and relocated bodies to obstruct the murder investigation, and seeks more than $1 million in damages for mental anguish, loss of inheritance, funeral expenses, and other losses.¹³ Christopher Preciado submitted a handwritten letter to the court denying the allegations and stating he cannot pay legal costs. Romanos filed a general denial. Ramon Preciado had not been served as of the most recent reporting.¹⁴

An Earlier Loss in the Same Family

Savanah’s murder was the second time in roughly a year that her family lost a loved one to gun violence. Her fifteen-year-old brother, Ethan Soto, was shot and killed in May 2023 in a San Antonio park. Police said eighteen-year-old Victor Rivas targeted Ethan in retaliation for a robbery involving THC products and used an underage girl to lure him from his home. Rivas had previously shot at the Soto family’s house.¹⁵

During a preliminary hearing for Rivas in October 2023, he made a gesture toward the Soto family in the gallery. Family members, including Matthew Guerra, jumped the courtroom partition and attacked Rivas, and four people were arrested in the melee.¹⁶ Two months later, Guerra and Soto were dead. In April 2025, Rivas accepted a plea agreement and was sentenced to 40 years in prison for Ethan’s murder and 10 years for evading arrest, to be served concurrently.¹⁷

In February 2026, the family unveiled a headstone honoring Savanah, Fabian, and Ethan, featuring photos of all three. At the unveiling, Savanah’s grandmother Rachel Soto said: “Savanah should have been here. Baby Fabian should have been running around with all his other little cousins. I just pray to God and ask for justice for all of us.”¹⁸