Inset left: Tomas Aguilar (Webb County Sheriff”s Office). Inset right: Oscar Bedarte (Joe Jackson North Funeral Chapels & Cremation Services). Background: The 2200 block of Iturbide Street in Laredo, Texas (Google Maps).
A Texas man has received his sentencing after fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend’s stepfather as the victim slept, then fleeing the scene to report the incident to 911.
Tomas Aguilar will serve 33 years in prison for the murder of 42-year-old Oscar Bedarte, according to records from Webb County court. Aguilar entered a guilty plea last week.
At the time of the crime, Aguilar was 18 years old. On March 30, 2022, he made his way into a home on Iturbide Street in Laredo through an unlocked door. Aguilar claimed he found a knife in the kitchen and used it to stab Bedarte while he slept, as noted in an affidavit examined by the Laredo Morning Times.
During the attack, Bedarte awoke, prompting Aguilar to stab him again, the court document reveals. Aguilar then fled the scene and contacted the police.
Police officers responded to the scene shortly after 1:30 a.m., where they discovered Bedarte in a pool of blood. He was declared dead on the spot.
Although Aguilar reached out to 911, his initial account did not confess to the murder. Instead, he portrayed the situation as an act of self-defense.
He said he went to an area park and met two men who invited him to a home, where another man was. Aguilar reportedly claimed that sometime after getting there, the man attacked him, trying to stab him in the chest before he managed to take control of the knife and stab the man multiple times.
Aguilar had cuts on his cheek and fingers as he delivered this account, authorities said.
Investigators were reportedly dubious about his story, telling Aguilar that the evidence found at the scene — such as a high concentration of blood found in the bedroom — did not track with the version of events he had just told. Aguilar’s story then changed, according to the affidavit, with him admitting “he knew the victim and stabbed him multiple times as he slept.”
He also reportedly explained his motive, saying he attacked Bedarte because he had “so much rage” over something Bedarte had done to his stepdaughter — Aguilar’s ex-girlfriend. He said he had wanted to kill the man for months but “did not have the guts” to do it before, the Laredo Morning Times reported.
It remains unclear what Aguilar believed Bedarte had done to his stepdaughter. Aguilar was arrested the day of the murder.
Bedarte’s obituary states that he left behind five children when he died. He was remembered as a man who “loved music, singing, dancing, and making people laugh.”
Aguilar will spend the next 33 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, records show.
