Trial begins for Aristh Rodriguez-Linares in connection to Jan. 21, 2025 shooting

Sandra Allen, state assistant attorney general, began opening statements in the state's case, including text messages between Rodriguez-Linares and the victim, the autopsy report and DNA analysis.

Rodriguez-Linares is charged with first-degree murder, a Class 1A felony; use of a firearm to commit a felony, a Class 1C felony; and unlawful/intentional discharge of a firearm, a Class 1D felony, in connections to Carballo’s shooting death on Jan. 21, 2025, in Lexington.

Allen said 11 bullets were fired from a handgun into a vehicle occupied by Carballo. Carballo was struck by gunfire six times, and found deceased.

In his opening statement, defense attorney David Tarrell said there were many phone calls and texts from Carballo sent to Rodriguez-Linares before the shooting took place.

A text from Carballo to Rodriguez-Linares said, "I'll go and teach you," Tarrell stated.

Tarrell claimed that Carballo went to Rodriguez-Linares home "looking for trouble."

He said that Rodriguez-Linares felt threatened for himself and his family.

Tarrell said that Carballo "came over when he was not welcome," and later attempted to run Rodriguez-Linares over before Rodriguez-Linares opened fire.

Following opening statements, the state called their first witness, Alayna Smith, the dispatcher who took the initial 911 call following the shooting.

Smith said she realized there was a language barrier with the woman speaking Spanish and used Rapid SOS to open a line of communication through a text translator.

Smith testified that a woman told her, "she needed help and to please come."

Officers with Lexington Police Department were dispatched to the scene at 75 Cypress Lane for a verbal disturbance with a language barrier.

The following three witnesses the state called upon were Lexington police officers Brylee Lauby, Jesse Evans and Edwin Perdomo.

Lauby was the first on the scene and Evans arrived shortly after.

After Lauby had separated Rodriguez-Linares and his wife Claudia Rodriguez inside the home, she directed Evans to the scene of the vehicle.

Evans testified that the vehicle was occupied by a male who was slumped over into the passenger side, the male was later identified as Carballo.

After casing the scene, Evans entered the home and asked Rodriguez-Linares "where the ‘pistola’ was?"

Evans located the handgun between the couch cushions in the living room of the defendants' home.

Perdomo, a sergeant, arrived on the scene after being notified of the language barrier.

After updating Perdomo on the situation, Perdomo told jurors he went to the vehicle where he witnessed the same scene as Evans.

The vehicle, a silver Monte Carlo, had both windows up and the doors were locked, he testified.

Perdomo said he used a baton to break the passenger window to gain entry, where he checked for a pulse on the victim. There was no pulse found.

The officers detained Rodriguez-Linares and placed him inside Evans' patrol vehicle, they testified.

All three officers described Rodriguez-Linares' demeaner as calm and cooperative with their commands.

The state called upon their fifth witness, Michael Baker, Lexington police criminal investigator.

He was called to the scene by Lexington Police Captain Phil Lauby.

Upon arriving to the scene, Baker noted that the Monte Carlo was still running and in drive.

Baker testified that they later identified Carballo by his ID they found in his wallet inside the vehicle.

He also testified that they located 11 bullet casings outside the 75 Cypress trailer home and recovered one casing on the hood of the vehicle.

Baker and other officers started collecting evidence into the early hours of Jan. 22, 2025.

The vehicle was towed to the LPD garage where they continued to collect evidence and began using trajectory rods on the bullet holes throughout the vehicle.

The trial recessed Tuesday as Lexington Criminal Investigator Baker was on the witness stand.

The trial continued Wednesday and Thursday morning with more witnesses taking the stand for the state.

Lexington Police Investigator Michael Baker resumed his testimony Wednesday morning, telling the jury he collected fingerprint evidence from the vehicle, finding Carballo’s fingerprints and several others, but not Rodriguez-Linares.

However, while investigating the vehicle Baker did notice what looked like a piece of paper or plastic sticking out of the driver side gas cap, he said, "It caught my attention," which prompted him to open the cap.

He found a plastic grocery bag inside before opening the bag to find a white, powdery like substance in smaller bags along with a cigarette box containing 14 individual baggies with the small white, powdery substance.

Baker conducted a field drug test on the substance that came back positive for cocaine.

The bags were then sent to the Nebraska State Patrol Crime Lab for testing. The results came back with 14.52 grams of methamphetamine and 16.563 grams of a mixture of methamphetamine and cocaine.

Baker testified that there were no firearms or other weapons found inside the Monte Carlo.

During the defense's cross of Baker, Attorney David Tarrell brought into evidence the Jan. 22, 2025, video interview police conducted with a minor.

The minor told a Lexington Middle School teacher that she had information about the shooting on Jan. 21.

In the interview video, Baker was questioning the minor with her mother present. The mother only spoke Spanish and no interpreter was brought in to translate.

Tarrell questioned Baker on the manner in which he conducted the interview, pointing out that Baker wrote the voluntary statement provided by the minor instead of having the minor write her own statement.

Baker said, "I've found it proves to be easier to write what is being said. Sometimes people don't know what to write down."

The court broke for a lunch recess before the state did a re-direct of Baker.

State Attorney General Sandra Allen questioned Baker on why they did not request DNA on the bags of drugs collected from the vehicle's gas cap.

"It was not a priority at the time," Baker said.

Allen then called on Lexington Police Investigator Lucas Pinkelman, who testified that upon arriving to the scene it was already locked down, so he went to the Lexington Police Department to process Rodriguez-Linares.

At LPD, Pinkelman conducted a test for gunshot residue and collected DNA for bodily fluids on the finger tips of Rodriguez-Linares.

After processing Rodriguez-Linares, Pinkelman took photos of the suspect before taking him to the jail and collecting his clothes and an iPhone.

Pinkelman testified that the iPhone, owned by Rodrigues-Linares, was sent to the Kearney Police Department after obtaining a search warrant to collect text messages, call logs and other information.

The call log revealed that there were 10 calls from Carballo to Rodriguez-Linares on the night of the shooting, of which one call was answered.

Emily Anderson, Nebraska State Patrol Crime Lab forensic scientist, was the next to take the stand, telling jurors that the lab received three finger swabs taken from Rodriguez-Linares, the handgun and magazine.

Anderson testified that she found two sets of DNA on the gun, but made "no comparisons due to the complexity of the DNA found.”

However, there were a mixture of four individual sets of DNA found on the magazine to which Rodriguez-Linares could be included in the mixture of DNA.

Anderson concluded in her results that Carballo's DNA was excluded in the mixture of DNA on the magazine.

Testing was provided on the DNA swab sent in by LPD on the swabs of Rodriguez-Linares' fingers.

Anderson found that Rodriguez-Linares was the major contributor of the DNA found under the left index fingernail and right index finger, and Rodriguez-Linares was included into the DNA found in the sample of the thumb swab.

Anderson provided further DNA testing in a second round submission of the 16 bags of drugs found in the vehicle. Anderson told jurors she received the bags on June 12, concluding that three separate DNA matches were found on the two larger bags in which Rodriguez-Linares was included on both.

Anderson reported that two partial DNA matches were found on the 14 small bags but no comparisons were made.

In Tarrell's cross of Anderson, he noted that Anderson voiced concerns to Allen on testing for DNA on all the drug bags after over a year of them sitting in evidence with LPD.

"It's not the typical order of operations," Anderson said. "We try to follow the 'best practice.'"

However, Anderson concluded that there was no indication of contamination.

The case resumed Thursday morning with Rodriguez-Linares' step-father Arleix Viciendo taking the stand.

Viciendo testified that he was working at Tyson the night of the shooting, and received a message in Spanish from Rodriguez-Linares on WhatsApp but he did not see it until later due to being at work.

Tarrell, in cross examination, questioned Viciendo, asking, "Did you know Mykal?"

"No, I only knew him as a cook at Tyson," Viciendo answered.

The second witness called was Maria Linares, mother of Rodriguez-Linares.

Allen questioned if Linares remembered in her deposition that Carballo told her that he records all conversations he has.

Linares said that she took that as a threat.

In the cross of Linares, Tarrell questioned Linares about why she didn't want Carballo in her home.

"Because I didn't want him there," she said. "I thought something was happening. I felt threatened."

Tarrell said that at some point Carballo had asked Linares and Rodriguez-Linares if he could move in with them. The family declined.

"He was only welcome at my home twice," Linares said.

The state then called Nebraska State Patrol Sgt. Dion Neumiller to the stand, who reconstructed the shooting scene in May 2026.

Allen asked Neumiller if he had any concerns with the vehicle being moved and sitting outside for that long that could change bullet patterns. Neumiller said, "yes."

Neumiller directly compared his trajectory findings to FARO scans collected by the Kearney Police Department on the night of the shooting.

He found 17 bullet defects outside and inside the vehicle.

Neumiller concluded that it was unreasonable to do an accurate sequence of the bullet patterns "because of time, heat/thawing cycles and the car being moved."

He testified that his findings placed the Monte Carlo to the east of the original location Baker had marked.

Allen questioned Neumiller on the approximate location the shooter would have been from the original spot of the vehicle.

"The shots originated from the front right and to the right of the car," Neumiller said. "That is the likely position based on my analysis."

In the cross of Neumiller, Tarrell questioned the directions the bullets traveled through the laminated glass and if that had any impact on where the bullet fragments were found inside the Monte Carlo.

Neumiller said, "Yes, it does impact how they travel."

Neumiller also testified that the location of the shell casings had limited value on determining where the shooter was located.

After a lunch recess, the state called Amy Weber, a firearm and tool mark analyst with the Nebraska State Patrol Crime Lab, to the stand. Weber tested the Glock 19 found at the crime scene, comparing 11 fired casings and 13 bullet fragments that were sent to the lab by LPD.

Weber testified that the bullets were "very damaged to different degrees" and "they all had a lot of damage."

Her report on the bullet fragments provided a very limited conclusion, she told jurors.

Allen asked Weber if she was able to identify if the bullet fragments were fired from the Glock 19.

"No, I was not," Weber said.

Weber testified that the 11 fired cartridges recovered from the scene were fired from a Glock 19 handgun submitted as evidence in the case.

The last witness to testify Thursday was James White, Jr., property manager of Willow Ridge Court, the trailer park where the shooting happened.

White was called to the stand to testify that a surveillance camera caught audio recording of the gunshots.

The witness was excused from the stand, and court recessed until Friday morning.