The three suspects accused of gunning down a 20-year-old Mansfield man outside a Fort Worth strip mall on Nov. 30, 2024, pre-planned the attack and specifically targeted the victim, police allege in arrest warrant affidavits.
Courtesy: Fort Worth police
The three suspects accused of gunning down a 20-year-old Mansfield man outside a Fort Worth strip mall on Nov. 30, 2024, pre-planned the attack and specifically targeted the victim, police allege in court records.
Daniel Wilson was shot multiple times in the parking lot of Oasis Food Mart, at 2321 Miller Ave. Officers were dispatched to the scene about 6:45 p.m. after getting a call about a man lying shot on the ground. Wilson was critically injured and died at John Peter Smith Hospital on April 27.
Detectives, who initially investigated the case as an aggravated assault, wrote in a redacted arrest warrant affidavit that they used surveillance video to identify the assailants’ car. Footage from the day of the shooting showed a gray Cadillac drive by the Oasis Food Mart as Wilson entered the store.
The car parked on the street about a block away, and two men — one dressed in a blue jacket and the other a black jacket — got out. Both were carrying AK-style rifles, according to the affidavit. The Cadillac’s driver parked again nearby and followed the other two suspects on foot back to the food mart.
As Wilson came out the front door, the two armed men aimed their rifles at him and fired about 26 rounds. Wilson could be seen running between parked cars and trying to avoid the gunfire, the detectives said. He was hit multiple times and fell to the ground.
The driver and the two shooters dashed back to the gray Cadillac and headed east on Ramey Avenue. Officers in the Real Time Crime Center obtained the car’s license plate number when it was scanned by Flock cameras about six minutes after the attack on Wilson, the affidavit states.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for the address connected to the Cadillac’s registration. One of the residents, Gabriel Jimenez, had a stash of guns and ammunition in his room, police said. None of the firearms matched the cartridge casings found at the scene of the shooting, but the ammunition was the same type, according to the affidavit.
Cellphone records showed that Jimenez called James Ortega about 5:25 p.m. on Nov. 30 and was in the vicinity of Ortega’s house shortly before 6 p.m. and again about 7 p.m. The phones belonging to Jimenez and Ortega were both at 2321 Miller Ave. at the time of the shooting, police said.
“Both of these devices travel the same path showing that they are together at the time of the murder and fleeing together in the gray Cadillac after the murder,” the affidavit states.
Ortega’s build is also similar to the man in the black jacket on the surveillance video, police said. Investigators believe he was one of the shooters and Jimenez acted as the driver, according to the affidavit.
Jimenez and Ortega were indicted on murder charges on Sept. 22, according to court records. The two suspects are being held in the Tarrant County Jail on $500,000 and $400,000 bonds respectively.
A third suspect, 22-year-old Francisco Maldonado Jr., was arrested Feb. 23 of this year. Investigators noticed that Ortega and Jimenez had previously called a number belonging to Maldonado. Cellphone records also showed that Jimenez was in the area of Maldonado’s house shortly before and after the fatal shooting. Detectives believe Maldonado was with the other two suspects and participated in the killing, according to the affidavit.
As further evidence, investigators said, they found a photo of Maldonado, wearing a blue Nike hooded jacket, on an iCloud account belonging to Jimenez. The photo was taken about 18 hours before the shooting and matches the description of the man in blue on the surveillance video, police said.
Maldonado is being held in the Tarrant County Jail on a $500,000 bond and faces a murder charge, according to court records.
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Harriet Ramos covers crime and other breaking news for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.