86-year-old man sentenced to 20 years in prison for 1986 Garland murder
GARLAND, Texas - An 86-year-old man will likely live out his final years in prison after being captured and convicted for a murder that happened nearly 40 years ago. Advances in DNA technology made it happen.
The family of Barbara Villarreal traveled a long way for a short hearing Tuesday morning. But they’ve been waiting 38 years to hear the man who brutally killed the Garland woman admit in court he is a murderer.
"Barbara’s mother is 93 years old and is still alive," said Dallas County lead prosecutor Leighton D’Antoni. "It was very important to her that she lived to see the day to see someone convicted for murdering her daughter."
On Nov. 7, 1986, Villarreal was found stabbed to death at a home off Colbath Street in Garland.
For nearly 40 years, the case turned cold until a new forensic technique matched a decades-old blood sample to now 86-year-old Liborio Canales, Villarreal’s brother-in-law.
Tuesday’s murder conviction is the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office’s first using what’s called investigative genetic genealogy or IGG.
One of Caneles' family members had DNA in a public database.
"This is an investigative tool, but it’s not solving our cases. We still need traditional police investigative methods, detectives and agents out working the grounds and interviewing people," D’Antoni said. "This doesn’t replace any of that, but this helps us identify and put people on the right track so that we do get it right."
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Canales, a Mexican citizen, was arrested in New Mexico last summer. Investigators noticed he was traveling back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border.
When he went to visit family in New Mexico in July 2023, the FBI was waiting for him. Once in custody, Canales confessed to the murder, stating he killed Villareal over a family dispute.
After Tuesday’s guilty plea, Canales was sentenced to 20 years in a Texas prison.
Right before Canales was taken away, Villarreal’s family sent a strong message stating they "will never let him occupy their thoughts again, and the life he lived should be considered a gift."
"They may have done some ungodly acts in their lives. They know they are meeting their maker sooner than later," D’Antoni said. "I do think that helps people to accept responsibility and plead guilty."
Back in 1986, Villarreal’s husband was interviewed by police but then was cleared. The husband was later killed in a shootout in Mexico in 1988 two years after Villarreal was murdered.