GALVESTON COUNTY, Texas – A Texas City man will serve life in prison for his role in the killing of a man during a 2020 home invasion.
Galveston County District Attorney Jack Roady said that Jacob Alvarado was sentenced on Wednesday after being found guilty of the murder of 19-year-old Colton Nowak.
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Prosecutors said the fatal shooting happened after Alvarado and two others, Mason Perry and Sean Greeness, broke into Nowak’s home, brandished firearms and demanded money.
Nowak retrieved his own firearm and a violent altercation ensued in which Nowak shot all three of his attackers and Alvarado and Perry shot Nowak 13 times. Nowak’s girlfriend was wounded in the shooting but survived her injuries.
Police found Perry mortally wounded outside Nowak’s residence.
Officers later found Greeness, who had been shot, dead in the driver’s seat of his vehicle about a mile from the crime scene. They located Alvarado, who sustained a gunshot wound to his neck, at a HCA Houston Emergency Room. He was indicted for capital murder.
During the murder trial, which began on March 27, prosecutors argued that DNA and firearms evidence showed that Alvarado fired at Nowak 14 times during the home invasion. They also presented evidence from Perry’s cell phone. In a text message conversation the day before the home invasion, Perry and Alvarado discussed the robbery and planned to zip-tie Nowak’s hands and feet, and further planned that if Nowak went for his gun, they would shoot him.
The jury deliberated for three hours before finding Alvarado guilty of capital murder.
Because Alvarado was 17 when he shot Nowak, he was not eligible for the death penalty, and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Alvarado must serve at least 40 years of the life sentence before he’s eligible for parole.