Murder trial begins next week in Abilene

Caleb Eric Fears will be in court next week for a murder trial in connection with the strangulation murder of Adrian Vizzera on Oct. 15, 2021.

Fears is also charged with two counts of tampering with evidence and one count of abuse of a corpse. He will be tried in the 42nd District Court before Judge James Eidson.

If convicted solely of first-degree murder, Fears faces five to 99 years or life in prison with a possible $10,000 fine, according to Assistant District Attorney Arimy Beasley.

He was being held Wednesday at the Taylor County Jail on $565,000 in total bonds, according to online jail records.

Fears has pleaded not guilty, according to his court-appointed defense attorney, Gary Smart

Allegations: Heated argument led to murder

Vizzera's death likely stemmed from a shooting the day before on Oct. 14, 2021, according to allegations in court documents. At the time, Vizzera had two roommates, Caleb Martinez and Seth Adam Blake.

On Oct. 14, an aggravated assault occurred, according to allegations. Martinez told police he was notified by Vizzera that Blake had possibly shot the neighbor. Martinez then left the house to go to a store.

When he returned, he found that Blake, Vizzera and Fears were in a heated argument. At this point, Martinez heard "banging on the front porch and Caleb Fears yelling."

Martinez decided to leave, and as he exited the house, he saw Fears walking toward the driver's side of a white Ford truck. Fears was then seen driving off in that same truck.

Moments later, the white truck was captured on a semi-truck's surveillance camera — as well in location data from a tracking device on the white truck — at the place where Vizzera's body was found dumped, according to allegations.

Fears' cell phone pinged at the same time in the same location, and it later pinged where police found Vizzera's body, according to allegations. In addition, Fears' cell phone pinged again at the location of the body after police had secured the scene.

Later, Blake and Fears are seen on an additional video at an undisclosed location, according to allegations. On the video, Blake announces he has already killed two people. Fears hushes him.

The preliminary autopsy report later revealed that Vizzera's cause of death was "homicidal violence including strangulation and blunt head trauma."

Indictment on four counts

While a Taylor County grand jury indicted Fears on one count of murder in the first-degree, they also indicted him on two counts of tampering with evidence and one count of abuse of a corpse.

Fears removed Vizzera's body from the murder scene and placed it in water to impair any evidence it could provide, according to the indictment. Additionally, Fears carried away a human corpse and attempted to conceal blood "to impair its availability as evidence."

Blood found in truck

On the day of the alleged murder, Fears was caught on video at the Super Suds Car Wash washing out the bed of the white truck, according to allegations. Law enforcement later located the truck at the Whitten Inn.

After obtaining a search warrant, officers found suspected blood in the bed of the white truck, which testing later revealed to be "primate blood," according to allegations. Its presence indicated Fears was tampering with evidence when he washed the truck bed.

Codefendant sentenced

In addition to the four counts related to the alleged murder of Adrian Vizzera, Fears has three separate pending charges of aggravated assault dating back to 2018, which are all unrelated to this case.

Blake, codefendant in the murder case, was convicted of Vizzera's murder and sentenced Aug. 1 to 75 years in prison, according to Beasley.

She said if convicted, Fears faces five to 99 years or life in prison for the murder charge, two to 20 years for the tampering charge, and 180 days to two years for the charge of abuse of a corpse. She said generally those convicted of multiple crimes serve time concurrently.

Anyone charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

The Reporter-News will be following the trial, so check back next week.

More on the arrest of Caleb Fears. Two charged in homicide of man whose body was dumped near Abilene brush center

More on Abilene's last murder trial. 'I am not guilty:' Trial of alleged toolbox murder begins in Abilene

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Murder trial begins next week in Abilene