Money owed may have been motive behind a double murder in Texas earlier this month, according to reports.
A probable cause affidavit details what investigators learned while looking into the shooting deaths of 66-year-old Lilia Fernandez Ortiz and her son 43-year-old Alejandro Arrellano-Fernandez in their house on Ramblewood Drive in Lewisville.
Arrellano-Fernandez ran a construction business out of the home and on occasion hired Samuel Melkamu, according to the documents.
About a week before the shooting on August 10, Melkamu texted Arrellano-Fernandez asking where the money was that he was owed. In the text thread Melkamu said his phone service will be turned off if he didn’t get the money he was owed, according to the affidavit.
A neighbor’s surveillance video showed a suspect that police later identified as Melkamu attacking Arrellano-Fernandez in front of his house on the morning of August 10. A second suspect, who police later identified as Jawara Black, ripped a chain off of Arrellano-Fernandez’s neck.
The affidavit says Melkamu then shot Arrellano-Fernandez in the head “execution-style” at point-blank range.
Both suspects are then seen dragging the body into the Ramblewood Drive garage.
On August 14, the victims’ bodies were discovered by a family member who had not been able to get into contact with them.
Police found Arrellano-Fernandez’s body in the garage. Fernandez Ortiz was found dead in the kitchen with two full cups of coffee and an uneaten plate of breakfast food nearby, according to the affidavit.
A neighbor’s surveillance video helped Lewisville police identify at least one of the suspects in the shooting.
Investigators found that bedrooms upstairs had been ransacked and that Arrellano-Fernandez’s 2008 Chevy Suburban was missing.
According to the documents, investigators tracked the stolen vehicle to a nearby hotel.
Hotel employees who were shown video of the attack identified Black and said he had lived there for months.
Surveillance video from the hotel showed who police believed to be Black and Melkamu get out of the stolen Suburban and go into a hotel room.
Melkamu was arrested on Wednesday, August 16 and Black was arrested on Monday, August 21 in Houston.
Both suspects are charged with two counts of capital murder.
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