The suspects were 15 and 16 when police arrested them; three years later, all have been sentenced in adult court proceedings.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — When San Antonio police first announced arrests in the carjacking of 80-year-old Larry Brister, the suspects were identified only as three boys ages 15 and 16. More than three years later, those once-anonymous juvenile defendants are adults, Brister is dead, and each has received a prison sentence arising from the case.
The progression from juvenile arrests to adult sentencing is one of the defining features of the prosecution. Zachariah Aguirre, now 19, received 25 years in prison in the murder case. Gabriel Urbano, also 19, was sentenced to 20 years on aggravated robbery convictions. Miguel Acosta, now 20, received 10 years after pleading guilty to aggravated robbery. Acosta was the last to be sentenced, completing a series of negotiated case resolutions that ended without all three defendants receiving the same conviction or punishment.
Their ages were a central fact from the start. Police announced on March 23, 2023, that three teenagers had been arrested after an investigation lasting several weeks. At that point, authorities did not release the boys’ names because they were minors. Officers said the investigation began after Brister was found badly injured at Walker Ranch and Stonewood Drive on Feb. 11. His pickup had been taken, and his condition initially prevented him from telling police what had occurred.
Investigators nevertheless pieced together the events and identified suspects. Prosecutors later said Aguirre, who was 15 at the time, approached Brister during the 80-year-old man’s trip to get dinner and induced him to step out of his truck by directing his attention to a tire. Authorities said Aguirre then entered the driver’s side and drove away. Brister tried to stop the theft and was dragged as the vehicle left. The allegations turned an apparent vehicle theft into an aggravated robbery case involving devastating bodily injuries.
The first arrests could not predict the direction the prosecution eventually would take because Brister was still alive. He had been hospitalized with severe trauma and faced a long recovery. His family described broken bones and multiple brain bleeds among his injuries. For months, relatives hoped he could survive the consequences of the attack. Instead, Brister’s condition remained serious. After nearly five months of medical treatment, he died in July 2023, and police sent the case to homicide investigators.
His death changed the potential criminal exposure for the teenagers. Authorities had initially charged the three with aggravated robbery, but murder allegations later became part of the prosecution after Brister died. The change illustrates why the final convictions cannot be understood solely from the charges announced immediately after the arrests. Criminal cases evolve as evidence develops, a victim’s condition changes and prosecutors negotiate separate resolutions with individual defendants. By 2026, each young man’s case had followed its own path.
Aguirre’s case produced the most serious final conviction. He accepted a plea agreement in the murder prosecution and was sentenced July 10 to 25 years in prison. Reporting on the case said an aggravated robbery charge was dismissed as part of the agreement. The sentence came when Aguirre was 19, roughly four years older than he had been during the carjacking. Prosecutors emphasized that youth at the time of an offense did not erase accountability, while Brister’s family used the hearing to describe the person they had lost and the years they had spent waiting for the case to move forward.
Urbano’s prosecution ended differently. He pleaded no contest to two counts of aggravated robbery. State District Judge Christine Del Prado imposed 20-year sentences on both counts and ordered them to run concurrently. In exchange for the plea arrangement, a murder charge and another aggravated robbery charge were dismissed, according to court reporting. One of the aggravated robbery matters involved separate alleged conduct against another victim, broadening Urbano’s criminal case beyond the fatal attack on Brister.
Acosta’s resolution was different again. At age 20, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated robbery. The Bexar County District Attorney’s Office identified his sentencing as the final one among the three co-defendants. His sentence was substantially shorter than Aguirre’s murder sentence and Urbano’s robbery sentence, a reminder that defendants tied to the same underlying event can face different outcomes depending on the charges established or resolved in their individual cases.
The years between arrest and sentencing also changed the public record surrounding the defendants. In 2023, police referred to them as boys and withheld their identities. By November 2025, local reporting identified Aguirre, Urbano and Acosta by name as their cases remained pending. Brister’s relatives were openly criticizing delays and expressing fear that the proceedings would continue to be postponed. By summer 2026, the first two sentencing hearings finally arrived. Acosta’s later sentencing completed the process in September.
While the defendants aged from adolescence into adulthood during the case, Brister’s family experienced a different passage of time. He never returned to the life he had before the carjacking. His widow, Sandra Brister, described him after his death as active and social at 80. He played tennis, helped neighbors, enjoyed dancing and was involved with his children and grandchildren. The attack interrupted that life during one of its most ordinary moments: a brief trip from his home to get food.
At Aguirre’s sentencing, the contrast between the defendants’ youth and Brister’s age did not eliminate the court’s obligation to address the conduct before it. Prosecutors said Aguirre was responsible for driving away after Brister exited the truck and for dragging him as Brister tried to intervene. Brister’s relatives addressed the court about the impact of the killing. Sandra Brister also spoke of forgiveness and faith, placing the defendant’s future alongside the permanent loss her family had endured. The court ultimately imposed a 25-year term.
Urbano and Aguirre also face parole rules associated with their sentences, according to court reporting, though eligibility does not guarantee release. Acosta’s sentence was imposed on a different conviction and under a separate plea resolution. Those distinctions are important because referring to the three simply as teenagers who received prison terms can obscure the legal differences among their cases. Only Aguirre was ultimately sentenced in Brister’s murder case, while Urbano and Acosta received their reported sentences on aggravated robbery convictions.
The completed prosecutions now provide a final legal picture that was impossible when police first announced the arrests. The case began with three unnamed juveniles accused of robbing an injured man. It developed into a homicide investigation after Brister’s death, remained unresolved for years and concluded with three named adult defendants receiving different prison sentences. The longest term went to Aguirre at 25 years, followed by Urbano at 20 and Acosta at 10.
For Brister’s family, those differences in charges and sentences do not change the event that connected the defendants in the first place. Brister left home on Feb. 11, 2023, for dinner, was found gravely injured in the roadway and never recovered enough to resume his life. The teenagers arrested weeks later eventually grew old enough to be publicly identified and sentenced as adults. Brister, already 80 when the crime occurred, did not live to see any of those judgments.
What began with police withholding the names of three juvenile suspects has ended with three adult defendants serving prison sentences imposed through different criminal cases. The shift is a measure of how long the prosecution lasted: Aguirre, Urbano and Acosta moved from adolescence into adulthood while their cases remained before the courts. Brister, whose death turned the investigation into a homicide case, never lived to see that transition or the judgments that followed it.
Author note: Last updated November 6, 2026.