A life sentence was handed down to 29-year-old Kyle resident Omar Galvan-Ochoa for the unprovoked murder of 46-year-old Aliaksandr Bushtser, as reported by the Hays County District Attorney’s office. Galvan-Ochoa was convicted by a Hays County jury this week and, on August 19, received the life sentence and a $10,000 fine. The murder occurred on September 6, 2023, at a Valero gas station in Buda, where Bushtser was shot three times in the back by the defendant.
In the investigation that followed, the Hays County Sheriff’s Office collected crucial surveillance video from the gas station, although the video quality rendered the vehicle’s license plate indistinguishable. With the aid of FLOCK camera images, investigators were able to track down the vehicle, owned by Galvan-Ochoa. Moreover, a local resident witnessed a separate altercation involving the driver minutes after the murder, providing the crucial license plate number to authorities. Galvan-Ochoa’s attempts to elude police later on ultimately failed, leading to his capture.
The prosecution of the case featured Assistant District Attorneys Elizabeth Schmidt and Christopher Griffith. In a statement released by Hays County, ADA Schmidt acknowledged the collective efforts that led to Galvan-Ochoa’s conviction: “Bringing this killer to justice was truly a team effort. We’d like to thank the Hays County Sheriff’s investigators, officers from the Kyle Police Department who assisted in apprehending the defendant, officers from the Buda Police Department who responded to the scene of the murder, the victim assistance coordinators who went above and beyond, the legal assistants who helped with voluminous discovery in this case, the DA investigators who tracked down many witnesses, and all of the witnesses who testified in the trial.”…