FAYETTEVILLE — Prosecutors told a Washington County Circuit Court jury that David Velazquez-Diaz pulled a gun from his pocket and shot Carol Lorenzo-Olivera in the head.

The defense claims the June 2022 shooting was accidental.

Velazquez-Diaz, 48, is charged with capital murder. Prosecutors have waived the death penalty in the case. If convicted, the penalty is life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Officers found Lorenzo-Olivera, 36, around 1:45 p.m. June 24, 2022, lying face down in a parking lot of an apartment complex at 1299 Electric Ave. Lorenzo-Olivera underwent surgery at a local hospital but died.

The trial is scheduled to resume Wednesday at 9 a.m.

Police tracked Velazquez-Diaz to an apartment complex at 405 Sisters Ave. He surrendered after about an hour. Velazquez-Diaz told police he went to help Lorenzo-Olivera with her car and the unloaded firearm, according to an arrest report.

Bill James, an attorney for Velazquez-Diaz, told jurors in his opening statement Tuesday that Lorenzo-Olivera’s car broke down and Velazquez-Diaz had his upper body under the dashboard and his legs in the air working on the car with Lorenzo-Olivera in the passenger seat when the gun went off, hitting her. James said Velazquez-Diaz did not believe the gun had a bullet in the chamber.

“There is no evidence that there was a struggle. There is no indication that it was anything more than an accident,” James said. “It’s certainly not a capital murder.”

James said Velazquez-Diaz fled the scene after the shooting.

“It doesn’t look good, but it doesn’t change what happened,” James said. “He got scared and ran.”

Prosecutor Whitney Doolittle told jurors in opening statements that the shooting was premeditated and Lorenzo-Olivera was shot from a foot to a foot and a half away.

Doolittle told jurors that Velazquez-Diaz pulled up where Lorenzo-Olivera’s car was broken into, pulled a gun from his pocket and shot Lorenzo-Olivera in the head.

James told jurors that Velazquez-Diaz wanted a serious relationship with Lorenzo-Olivera, but they broke up at that point.

James told jurors that Lorenzo-Olivera told her sister she was going to call Velazquez-Diaz to fix her car after it broke down.

Prosecutors pointed to a flurry of calls and texts in the days leading up to the shooting, most of which Lorenzo-Olivera did not accept or return. She had blocked him at one point too.

Witnesses told jurors they saw Lorenzo-Olivera’s car driving away with smoke coming from it and the door open, and Lorenzo-Olivera hanging partially out of the passenger door in a large pool of blood.

Springdale police officers told jurors Tuesday that there was blood inside the driver’s door and on the driver’s seat when they arrived. There was a spent cartridge on the driver’s seat.

Velazquez-Diaz is considered a habitual offender with more than four felony convictions.

Velazquez-Diaz pleaded guilty on May 31, 2016, to aggravated battery on a family member, four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and being a felon in possession of a weapon. The conviction stemmed from a December 2015 arrest when he pointed a loaded gun at his wife and threatened to kill her while the children were in the home, according to court records. He was sentenced to 20 years, with 12 years suspended, in the state Department of Corrections. He also has a drug conviction.

Velazquez-Diaz was released from the Arkansas Department of Corrections in October 2017, according to department records.