Tristan sentenced to life in prison for 2021 slaying

By Jessica Coleman
Contributing Writer

     “We could try to stay here.” The voice of Dolores Sabedra saturated the courtroom as her family and friends sat in silence. She continued, “But something is going to wind up happening.”

     The recording of Sabedra’s conversation with her teenage daughter was taken on October 3, 2021 – the day before she was murdered by her on-and-off boyfriend Augustine Tristan, who pled guilty before beginning the sentencing phase of his murder trial, which allowed a jury to decide his fate. She could be heard saying things like, “As long as I stay here, I’m not going to be able to get away from him,” and “I need to get out of Edna. I don’t know what else to do.”

     The very next day, Dolores would be dead, and Tristan would be confessing to killing her with a 12-inch Crescent wrench, after being refused a handgun earlier in the day. According to forensic witnesses, Sabedra received at least 21 blows by the wrench, mostly to her head, arms, and hands.

     A jury ruled on Friday, May 27 that Tristan would spend the rest of his life in prison and owe a $10,000 fine.

    Tristan and his attorney Kelsey Downing spent the sentencing phase working to convince jurors he committed the attack out of a “Sudden Passion,” a defense that in Texas can only be invoked during the punishment phase of a trial and cannot be used to establish guilt or innocence. In order to be a crime of Sudden Passion, an offense needs to be not premeditated, and it must be shown by a preponderance of the evidence that it is due to “adequate cause.”  Adequate cause in Texas is defined as “A cause that would commonly produce a degree of anger, rage, resentment or terror in a person of ordinary temper, sufficient to render the mind incapable of cool reflection.”

     Prosecutor Stephen Tyler would argue that Tristan is far from a person of “ordinary temper,” and published several voice recordings that presented Tristan as a rambling hothead – someone who blows his top when things don’t go his way. It is a trait that witnesses testified was amplified by alcohol consumption.

     Witnesses for the Defense would describe Tristan as a troubled veteran, who left for war and came back damaged.

     In recordings, Tristan’s voice could be heard making threats to the lives of several people, some veiled and some explicit.

     In one, Meghan Chiles, who has a child with Tristan, described calling police after he threatened to kill Sabedra and her teenage child. Tristan can be heard saying “Just so you know, that was a stupid move for you.” Later, he boasted that he could hurt whoever he wanted and that “The Jackson County Jail can’t touch me.”

     Recorded phone calls to his parents after his arrest for Sabedra’s murder reveal Tristan to be increasingly belligerent about the fact that they didn’t plan to bond him out of jail, claiming that if they paid to get him out, he may get a lower sentence. His mother can be heard refusing, saying “You beat us up all the time. You’re always beating your dad up,” before Tristan went on to talk about his hope to “plead insanity.”

     In a February 2022 phone call from jail, Tristan again demanded his parents post bond, this time ostensibly to see his daughter. When his mother pointed out that the child’s mother would likely not allow him to see the child due to his actions he said, “Oh, I’m going to see my daughter. I don’t give a f--- if I have to kill Meg [Chiles] or not. Russ [Chiles, Meghan’s then husband] might get it too,” and making grandiose statements like “God has no control over what I do.”
     Even when his father didn’t argue back, opting to simply say “OK, Augie,” Tristan continued to yell at his parents and call them names. He ended the call with “F--- y’all.”

     Relatives of Tristan testified that this wasn’t even his first time assaulting someone with a wrench. Years ago, he was convicted of assaulting someone else by hitting them in the head with one very similar to the murder weapon. An uncle testified that Tristan also once assaulted him and smashed his phone.

     On Thursday, May 26, the Prosecution rested after almost four days of testimony.

     On May 27, The Defense called Diane Tristan, Mother of Augustine, who described Tristan as a happy individual who went off to war and came back damaged. She said he “wasn’t the same” after he returned from military service.

     Tristan himself took the stand as the final witness and had to be corrected by Judge Bell several times for rambling and going off on tangents about killing Sabedra, saying he just wanted to get things over with. He alternated crying and making forceful, boisterous statements like “I could have fought this case and probably won.” He also recalled the murder and saying to Sabedra, “Now look what I gotta do,” before bludgeoning her with the wrench.

     During his testimony Tyler asked Tristan if he's been in a lot of fights in jail and Tristan responded "I am not the one to f---  with, Mr. Tyler."

     In closing statements, Tyler said the jury had a responsibility to review the evidence and decide if someone who said things like “God can’t stop me. Jackson County can’t stop me” was someone they’d want to let back out into the streets at any time in the future and urged them to sentence him to life in prison. A couple of hours later, they did just that.

     Tristan was remanded to the Jackson County Jail.