A 46-year-old Arizona man is facing several charges, including murder, after allegedly forcing his way into a Phoenix apartment and shooting a man who had been sleeping.
Henry Celaya was arrested in connection with the murder of 29-year-old David Cordova.
Just before 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Phoenix police responded to reports of an injured man at an apartment complex near 31st Avenue and Washington Street. Officers found Cordova, who had been shot, and he died a short time later at a hospital.
According to court documents, a witness identified the suspect as someone she knew named Henry Celaya. She reportedly told police someone was banging on the door and when she answered, Celaya pushed her to the side. She said Celaya went into the living room where Cordova was sleeping, then hit him in the face and grabbed his necklace. The suspect reportedly yelled at Cordova to “give me everything” while searching his pockets.
The witness said Celaya repeated for Cordova to give him everything, then allegedly placed a handgun on his chest and fired one shot. He then ran from the apartment.
A short time later, another witness said Celaya banged on her front door and pushed his way into her apartment, telling her that “he just smoked someone.” She reportedly told him to leave, and she lost sight of him after he jumped a wall. Officers later recovered a handgun under a nearby trash can.
Around the same time, police received information that Celaya was possibly hiding in a car outside his mother’s home on 33rd Avenue, less than a half mile from the shooting scene. Tactical units responded to the area, and Celaya was arrested around 10 a.m. Officers also seized a bag that Celaya dropped on the trunk of a car before he was taken into custody, which later tested positive for methamphetamine.
Court documents say Celaya refused to answer detectives’ questions, but one of the witnesses positively identified him as the suspect in the shooting. He was booked into the Maricopa County jail for first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, attempted armed robbery, misconduct involving weapons by a prohibited possessor, discharging a firearm within city limits and drug possession. Documents also say he had two felony warrants for probation violation from previous drug possession convictions.
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