An 18-year-old Guatemalan migrant might face capital punishment if discovered responsible of the dying of his 11-year-old next-door neighbor. Authorities imagine the Pasadena, Texas, preteen was sexually assaulted and strangled by the neighbor, whom police say tried to deflect blame from himself by utilizing a well-recognized racial trope: It was two Black guys.
Police say to cover the kid’s physique, the youth, whose identify is Juan Carlos Garcia-Rodriguez and entered the nation illegally in January, stuffed it in a hamper and hid it beneath her father’s mattress.
Texas legislation enforcement arrested and charged Garcia-Rodriguez with the Aug. 12 dying of Maria Gonzalez. He was hit with one rely of capital homicide of an individual older than 10 and youthful than 15. In Texas, this crime is punishable by life imprisonment or the dying penalty.
Now booked as an grownup, Garcia-Rodriguez is being held in custody on the Harris County jail.
He appeared in court docket for the primary time on Aug. 24, and bond was denied.
The younger sufferer was killed in her house on the Principal Village residences. An investigation decided that the refugee had simply turned 18 and moved into the complicated weeks earlier than taking her life, Regulation & Crime reported.
After the lady was discovered useless Garcia-Rodriguez fled to Louisiana, the place he was later captured.
After his arrest, Garcia-Rodriguez initially denied harming Gonzalez.
FOX 26 experiences he advised police that he was with buddies throughout the time Maria would have been killed. Nonetheless, that alibi didn’t take a look at. Later he advised authorities that two Black males pressured him to commit the assault — including they’d weapons and threatened to kill him if he didn’t.
Court docket paperwork present that on the day of the homicide, Gonzalez’s father noticed the “long-haired neighbor” speaking on the cellphone in a stairwell of the complicated earlier than he left for work.
Gonzalezes lived in unit 204 and Garcia-Rodriguez lived in unit 203. The residences had been six toes other than one another and shared a stairwell.
Maria messaged her father on the WhatsApp messaging app round 10:02 a.m. and mentioned somebody was knocking on the door.
The dad despatched somebody to the home to examine on the kid however didn’t obtain a report of concern. Nonetheless, when he arrived house round 2:30 p.m., he found his daughter had been mushed in a black trash bag and dumped in a white laundry basket in his bed room.
Police mentioned her reason behind dying was decided to be “blunt power head and neck trauma and asphyxia on account of strangulation.” Court docket paperwork additionally mentioned Maria “had been sexually assaulted” throughout the assault.
The dad additionally found on the ground an odd silver key — one finally linked to Garcia-Rodriguez — and shared it as proof to authorities. He mentioned the important thing didn’t belong to anybody of their house.
When officers requested across the complicated, Garcia-Rodriguez’s roommates mentioned the suspect was purported to be shifting out however had refused to return the important thing to these residing within the condo. In consequence, the roommates modified the locks on him.
One roommate mentioned, Garcia-Rodriguez “acknowledged he had gotten a brand new job and was shifting out and refused to return his condo key.”
The important thing discovered on the Gonzalez residence matched the previous lock for the 203 unit. The important thing, even earlier than DNA proof was gathered, helped authorities pin down the Guatemalan as a suspect.
Gonzalez is devastated by the lack of his daughter. He mentioned in a press release he hopes the suspect is “burdened with the total weight of the legislation for what he has achieved to my daughter.”
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