The final sentence closes a yearslong prosecution stemming from the 2023 attack on 80-year-old Larry Brister.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — All three defendants prosecuted in connection with the violent 2023 carjacking of 80-year-old Larry Brister have now been sentenced to prison, bringing a major stage of the case to an end more than three years after Brister left his North Side home to pick up dinner and never returned as his family expected.

Miguel Acosta, 20, was the last of the three defendants to receive a sentence, according to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office. Acosta received 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated robbery. His co-defendants received longer terms earlier in the year: Zachariah Aguirre, 19, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the murder case, while Gabriel Urbano, 19, received 20 years after resolving aggravated robbery charges. The sentences mark the culmination of criminal cases that began when all three were juveniles and initially were identified publicly only by their ages.

The case began on the evening of Feb. 11, 2023. San Antonio police said officers were called to the area of Walker Ranch and Stonewood Drive on the city’s North Side around 7 p.m. There, they found Brister lying in the road with serious injuries. He was unable to explain what had happened because of his condition, but investigators soon determined that he had been attacked and his pickup truck had been stolen. Brister had left home on what family members described as an ordinary dinner trip, less than a mile from where he lived.

Prosecutors later described a scheme that began when Aguirre, then 15, approached Brister and led him to believe there was a problem with a tire on his truck. When Brister got out to look, authorities said, Aguirre got behind the wheel. Prosecutors said Brister tried to stop the theft as the truck moved away and was dragged. The encounter left him with extensive injuries that required months of hospital care. The description supplied by prosecutors became central to the murder case against Aguirre and to the aggravated robbery prosecutions involving the others.

Police announced arrests in March 2023, saying three boys between 15 and 16 years old had been taken into custody and charged with aggravated robbery. Their identities were not released at the time because they were minors. The investigation later became far more serious. Brister survived the initial attack but remained gravely injured, and his medical ordeal continued through the spring and into summer. His family said he suffered multiple fractures and brain injuries, along with other trauma associated with being dragged during the theft.

Brister died in July 2023, about five months after the carjacking. His widow, Sandra Brister, had told local news outlets that his condition had required prolonged treatment and that the family ultimately placed him in hospice care. San Antonio police referred the case to homicide investigators after his death. Prosecutors subsequently pursued murder allegations in connection with the fatal attack, transforming what had started as a juvenile aggravated robbery case into a homicide prosecution that would continue for years.

The passage of time became a significant part of the story for Brister’s family. By late 2025, more than two years after his death, the three defendants were still awaiting resolution of their cases. Sandra Brister and other family members publicly expressed frustration over postponed proceedings and uncertainty about when the cases would be completed. They described a home still marked by Brister’s absence and said repeated delays made it difficult to reach any sense of finality. Their complaints reflected how the court process had stretched long beyond the night of the crime and the months Brister spent fighting to recover.

The first major sentencing came in July 2026, when Aguirre received 25 years in prison on the murder case. Prosecutors said he was 15 when the offense occurred. During the sentencing hearing, Brister’s relatives spoke about the impact of the killing and the routine nature of the errand that had taken him from home that night. Sandra Brister told the court that her husband had gone to pick up hamburgers and never came home. She also described people who stopped to help him after the attack, including former San Antonio Spurs player Bruce Bowen, who was among those who encountered Brister at the scene.

Urbano’s case was resolved separately. Court reporting showed that he pleaded no contest to two aggravated robbery counts and received concurrent 20-year prison terms from state District Judge Christine Del Prado. A murder charge and another aggravated robbery charge were dismissed as part of the agreement. One of Urbano’s aggravated robbery cases involved an incident separate from the attack on Brister. Prosecutors said the additional case arose after another man encountered Urbano and Aguirre during an attempted vehicle burglary. That proceeding gave the court a broader record to consider while leaving the Brister murder charge resolved through the negotiated plea arrangement.

Acosta’s sentencing completed the sequence. The district attorney’s office said he had pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery before receiving a 10-year term. District Attorney Joe Gonzales said the sentence imposed accountability for Acosta’s role while acknowledging that a prison term could not reverse the harm to Brister or his family. The three outcomes were not identical because the defendants resolved different charges through separate agreements, but each resulted in a substantial prison sentence tied to conduct surrounding the events that began with Brister’s stolen truck.

The court outcomes also closed a gap between the original police account and the legal consequences that followed. In March 2023, police could say only that three juveniles had been arrested after an 80-year-old man was found injured in the road. By 2026, the defendants were adults, their names were public, Brister’s death had become the central fact of the prosecution, and the cases had moved through negotiated resolutions rather than trials. Aguirre received the longest sentence after the murder prosecution, while Urbano and Acosta were sentenced on aggravated robbery convictions.

For Brister’s family, the criminal cases followed years of hospital visits, grief and court appearances. Relatives described Brister in earlier interviews as an active man who still played tennis, helped neighbors with yard work and enjoyed dancing. He was a husband, father and grandfather whose short trip for food became the last errand of his life. Those details remained prominent as his relatives appeared in court because they emphasized the life that existed before the crime, rather than defining Brister solely by the injuries that eventually caused his death.

The three cases now stand on separate final judgments rather than a shared allegation: Aguirre received 25 years in the murder case, Urbano was sentenced to 20 years for aggravated robbery, and Acosta received 10 years for aggravated robbery. Their sentencings end the unresolved court proceedings that followed Brister’s death, leaving the convictions and prison terms as the criminal justice system’s final accounting of the February 2023 carjacking.

Author note: Last updated November 6, 2026.