A Laredo man accused in a deadly shooting from 2023 stood before a judge again this year. Jose Gustavo Dominguez Jr., who was 18 when he was arrested, pleaded not guilty on Aug. 6 in the 341st District Court. Judge Beckie Palomo heard the plea after Dominguez was reindicted.

A reindictment means a grand jury filed the charges again under a new case. Court records do not say why the case was reindicted. El Tejano will not guess at a reason the records do not give.

Dominguez faces three charges. The first is murder. That is a first degree felony. It carries five to 99 years, or life, in prison. The second is aggravated robbery. That is also a first degree felony. It carries the same punishment range, five to 99 years or life. The third charge is tampering with physical evidence. Court records say Dominguez meant to impair the evidence. That charge is a third degree felony. It carries two to 10 years in prison.

The charges go back to the killing of Jose Roberto Obregon. Prosecutors say Obregon was shot to death on Dec. 11, 2023. Laredo police called it the city's seventh homicide of that year.

At the Aug. 6 hearing, Dominguez pleaded not guilty. He waived his right to have the indictment read out loud in court. His lawyer asked for pretrial hearing dates instead.

The judge set new bonds on two of the charges. Dominguez got a $70,000 personal recognizance bond on the aggravated robbery charge. He got a $30,000 personal recognizance bond on the tampering charge. A personal recognizance bond lets a defendant go free without paying cash, as long as they promise to show up to court. The judge kept the original bond in place on the murder charge.

The case moved forward again on Sept. 10. At that pretrial hearing, the court agreed to carry over old motions and rulings from the first case into the new, reindicted case. Dominguez's defense did not object.

A final pretrial hearing is set for Dec. 8 before Judge Palomo.

Court records say three other people were arrested with Dominguez after the December 2023 shooting. Laredo police charged Ruben Ray Tobias Sr., 45, Ruben Ray Tobias Jr., 18, and Ivan Oziel Mendez, 17, with murder in the same case. Tobias Jr. and Mendez also face tampering charges, according to police. Court records did not give further detail on those tampering charges.

Everyone is presumed innocent until proved otherwise.