Felix Rocha Estrada | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers

Felix ROCHA ESTRADA

Classification: Murderer

Characteristics: Retaliation

- Robbery

Number of victims: 1

Date of murder: November 26,

1997

Date of birth: May 7,

1976

Victim profile: Rafael Fuentes

(security guard

)

Method of murder: Shooting

Location: Harris County, Texas, USA

Status: Sentenced to death on December 16, 1998

Name	TDCJ Number	Date of Birth
Rocha, Felix	999291	05/07/76
Date Received	Age (when received)	Education Level
12/16/98	22	4 years
Date of Offense	Age (at the offense)	County
11/26/97	18	Harris
Race	Gender	Hair Color
Hispanic	Male	Black
Height	Weight	Eye Color
5-1	142	Brown
Native County	Native State	Prior Occupation
Unknown	Mexico	Unknown
Prior Prison Record
None
Summary of incident
On November 26, 19994, Rocha and one co-defendant murdered a security guard at an apartment complex in Houston. Rocha had been involved in a physical confrontation with the security guard a week before the murder. On the night of the murder, Rocha and his co-defendant approached the security guard and attempted to take his gun. The security guard was shot twice in the face, resulting in his death. The co-defendant took the victim's gun and pager.
Co-defendants
Virgilio Maldonado
Race and Gender of Victim
hispanic male

Felix Rocha v. Texas

The evidence shows the following:

On November 26, 1994, Rafael Fuentes, the decedent, was working as a security guard at La Camelia, a nightclub in Harris County. Reynaldo Munoz, who owned some pool tables at the nightclub, arrived at around 7:00 p.m. Munoz talked to Fuentes for ten to fifteen minutes while Fuentes stood at the door to the club. Munoz noticed that Fuentes was wearing a holster containing a gun. Two men, a tall man and a short man, moved quickly toward Fuentes. Munoz moved out of the way as Fuentes stopped the men to conduct a search. Munoz saw the tall man raise his arms as if to permit a frisk. Then Munoz watched the short man pull out a gun, point the gun at Fuentes, demand Fuentes' gun,(3) and reach for Fuentes' gun. At that point, Munoz began to flee the scene and did not see what happened next. As he fled, Munoz heard two or three gunshots.

A police radio dispatch informed patrol officer Michael Junco of a shooting in progress. Junco arrived at the scene to find Fuentes' body with gunshot wounds. Junco noticed that there was no gun in Fuentes' holster.

The tall man was later identified as Virgilio Maldonado. The short man was believed by law enforcement officials to be appellant. Houston Police Officer X. E. Avila interviewed appellant. In his oral statements, appellant gave the following version of events: Appellant and Fuentes had been involved in an altercation at some time prior to the murder. Fuentes had beaten and otherwise embarrassed appellant, and appellant had vowed to get revenge. On the night of the killing, appellant and Maldonado confronted Fuentes. Appellant intended to take Fuentes' gun to embarrass him and show that Fuentes was not a good security guard. Appellant pulled his own gun on Fuentes, and Fuentes grabbed appellant's gun. Then appellant and Fuentes struggled over appellant's gun, and appellant's gun was shot once during the struggle. Appellant did not know whether the shot hit Fuentes or simply went into the air. Maldonado shot Fuentes several times to protect appellant. Maldonado then took Fuentes' gun, and appellant and Maldonado fled the scene.

The corpus delicti for robbery was established by the testimony of Munoz and Junco. Munoz's testimony established that Fuentes was carrying a gun in his holster prior to being shot, that he was confronted by two persons, that one of these persons demanded and reached for Fuentes' gun, and that a shooting occurred afterwards. Junco's testimony established that Fuentes had been shot and that his gun was missing shortly after the shooting had occurred. This evidence tends to show that Fuentes' gun was stolen during a physical attack upon him and that the physical attack culminated in a murder.