Nearly four years after a drive-by shooting turned a Central Lubbock driveway into a crime scene, 22-year-old Adam Villarreal finally stood up in court and pleaded guilty. Domingo Siri, 30, was killed on September 1, 2021, and another man, Cleotis Johnson, was wounded. Multiple people — including kids — were outside when someone in a passing vehicle opened fire on the 1600 block of 28th Street. You know, just another night in America’s safest imaginary small town.
Villarreal didn’t plead guilty to murder, though. Instead, prosecutors let him plead to aggravated assault for shooting from a moving vehicle and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. In exchange, the murder charge quietly went away, and he got 15 years in prison. He also got credit for the 1,141 days he’s already spent in jail, which means the clock has been ticking this whole time while the case marinated.
The break in the case didn’t come from some brilliant police work montage — it came from a Crime Line tip almost a year later, in July 2022. That tip named Villarreal and his girlfriend, Catelyn Pina. Pina eventually told police she was driving Villarreal’s car, said someone else was the shooter, and claimed she was just following directions like a particularly unlucky Uber driver. Cell phone records and shell casings, however, put both of them and Villarreal’s car right at the scene when the bullets flew.
Siri was dead on the driveway. Johnson went to the hospital. Villarreal is now headed to prison for 15 years, and Pina’s case is still “pending,” which in Lubbock-speak means it could be resolved sometime between next week and the heat death of the universe.
So in Lubbock, a deadly drive-by with kids in the yard gets you a plea deal and a calendar reminder — but hey, at least everyone finally got around to it, right?
