Five months after Tarrant County grandfather’s death, family devastated – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

The family of a Tarrant County grandfather beaten to death by three strangers says they have been dealt another blow.

Five months have passed since Frank Kwasnica’s death in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Arlington.

Three men were arrested for the January 19 murder.

Kwasnica’s family told NBC 5 they had been informed by the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office that prosecutors may not take the case to trial.

Sierra Radley and Frank Kwasnica Sr. say they have no choice but to speak publicly about this week’s devastating and unexpected developments.

They say an assistant district attorney leading the case told them Tuesday that prosecutors intend to approach the suspect’s lawyers and offer them a deal to avoid a trial.

“I feel like they don’t want to bother because there are going to be three different trials,” said Radley, the victim’s eldest daughter. “I felt like they had no respect for my father, like they just wanted to get the case over with. I feel like they don’t want to bother because it’s not their family.”

Radley says she is willing to take the risk and is demanding three separate capital and murder trials in connection with her father’s death.

“(My father) was not offered a second chance at life,” she said. “They left him there and I just feel like I wouldn’t be doing the right thing for my father by sitting here. He deserves to be gone for life or the death penalty.”

Arlington police said the brutal attack in January was captured on video, including a cell phone that led police to the trail of three Honduran citizens: brothers Brayan Amador Vasquez and Jared Amador Vasquez, and Norlan Gomez Torres.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement police arrested Gomez Torres in October 2023.

According to the arrest warrants, the Amador Vasquez brothers confessed to the attack.

According to police, the beatings were so brutal that it took days before the victim could be clearly identified.

“They beat him and stabbed him with several sharp objects,” Radley said. “They hit him with a metal bar. They knew what they were doing. He tried to run away and they chased him.”

Radley and Kwasnica Sr. experienced painful moments in which they were urged not to look at the victim’s body given the severe injuries to his face, head and body.

“Because they beat him so badly and he was unrecognizable, we didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye,” she said. “People like that don’t deserve to be on the streets.”

Police initially arrested the trio on capital charges after discovering that they had stolen the victim’s car following the attack.

In late April, a Tarrant County grand jury indicted all three on murder charges, finding that they “intentionally caused the death of Frank Kwasnica by striking him with a club, roofing tool or blunt object.”

The family reported Kwasnica missing and later found the victim’s car.

Police found a bloody shoe that did not belong to the victim, a cell phone allegedly belonging to Gomez Torres, and evidence in an apartment rented to one of the suspects.

Police also said there were witnesses to the crime, including a tow truck driver who recorded the “very disturbing” attack on his cellphone.

“Mutilating him, I mean, what kind of people are they,” asks an angry Kwasnica Sr. “They are animals. They don’t deserve compassion and there should be justice for them.”

According to online records, Sorrells waived the death penalty for all suspects in late May.

NBC 5 reached out to Tarrant County District Attorney Phil Sorrell’s office to ask if and why a plea deal is being offered.

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said in a statement: “No offer of settlement was made in the cases related to the death of Frank Kwasnika III.”

The public prosecutor’s office declined to comment on whether a deal would be offered or accepted at a later date and whether and what “weight” a victim’s family would have in these decisions.

All three suspects remain in prison.

NBC 5 was unable to reach the attorneys for comment.

The alleged motive is still unclear, but police said there may have been an argument between the men and Kwasnica following a minor accident.