Despite clinging to memories, they offer little comfort to a mother deprived of the ability to embrace her son.
“He loved church, he loved fishing, he loved music,” shared Erica Silva.
Silva recounted her experience entering a Tarrant County courtroom last Friday to directly address one of the teenagers accountable for her son Zechariah Trevino’s death.
“These were kids on kids, and it’s a sad situation,” reflected Silva.
Traveling from her residence in Oklahoma, Silva attended the sentencing hearing for Isaiah Nunez, 18, who pleaded guilty for his involvement in Trevino’s demise and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
Prosecutors stated Nunez was among three suspects implicated in the shooting outside a fast-food restaurant where Trevino worked as a cook.
“I told him in court, ‘look at me, look at me when I’m talking to you Isaiah’,” Silva recounted. “He lifted his head, and I told him, ‘I can only hope the best for you. You messed up your whole life by one mistake that you made. You not only took my son’s life but you took your own’.”
The shooting, which occurred in January 2023 just a block from the school Trevino attended, triggered an immediate wave of sorrow from the R.L. Paschal High School community in Fort Worth ISD.
Silva emphasized that as time passes, her son’s legacy endures. She now dedicates herself to supporting other families who have lost children to violence, transforming her ongoing grief into assistance for others.
“Don’t be afraid to say ‘this is how I’m feeling, it’s not normal today’,” Silva advised. “Grief is the final act of love, and it can take you to some really dark places. And no one deserves that.”
She finds solace in being able to confront her son’s killer and pledges to continue sharing Zechariah’s story so that everyone recognizes him as an individual beyond a mere statistic.
“That way everybody knows he has a face, he wasn’t just a number,” Silva affirmed.
