AUSTIN, Texas — A man charged in the murder of a 66-year-old at a Northeast Austin bus stop was identified after his mother saw a police request for information on Facebook and called 911, according to an arrest affidavit.
Jesse Carl Monroe II, 33, is charged with murder, a first-degree felony, in the Oct. 6 death of Jeffrey Grable.
According to the affidavit, Walmart surveillance video showed Grable arriving at CapMetro’s Norwood Transit Center around 2:46 a.m. and lying down on the ground a few minutes later. Around 3:48 a.m., a man in a white shirt and dark pants approached him, lingered and leaned down toward him before walking to a nearby gas station.
The same man returned to the bus stop around 4:16 a.m. and appeared to strike Grable with an object, the affidavit says. He then ran through the parking lot and through a gap in a fence onto Rutherford Lane.
A CapMetro bus driver called 911 around 5:18 a.m. to report a man on the ground surrounded by blood. Officers found Grable unresponsive next to the bus stop bench, and he was pronounced dead at 5:34 a.m.
Investigators found a piece of concrete with blood on it beside his head, according to the affidavit. An autopsy determined he died of blunt force trauma to the head and ruled his death a homicide.
Police released a photo of the suspect on social media Oct. 7. That afternoon, a woman called 911 and said the man in the photo was her son.
She said Monroe was homeless, often spent time in the Rundberg area and took the bus through the Norwood Transit Center. She also told police he had been violent in the past and had been acting erratically, according to the affidavit.
Records showed Monroe had been given a criminal trespass warning at a North Austin YMCA earlier that day. Officers later found him back on the YMCA’s property and arrested him for criminal trespass, the affidavit says.
In an interview with a homicide detective, Monroe said he did not remember being near the Walmart or gas station, according to the affidavit.
The detective wrote that Monroe was wearing black jogger-style pants that cinched at the ankle, similar to those worn by the man in the surveillance video, and that he noticed a red stain on them. Police seized the clothing, and a crime scene specialist found Oct. 8 that the stain tested positive for blood.
According to online jail records, Monroe is being held on a $250,000 bond.
The killing was Austin’s 45th homicide of the year.
Anyone with information can contact police at 512-974-TIPS or submit tips anonymously through Capital Area Crime Stoppers at austincrimestoppers.org or 512-472-8477.