HOUSTON — A 19-year-old Jersey Village High School student is accused of going to great lengths to kill his drug dealer and trying to get the victim's girlfriend to send him money, according to court documents.
Javier Gonzalez-Arzate, 19, was charged with capital murder in connection with the death of Angel Hernandez. According to court documents, investigators think Gonzalez-Arzate killed Hernandez, stole THC cartridges and tried to get Hernandez's girlfriend to send him money through CashApp.
Video evidence
According to court documents, investigators used surveillance video to track the movements of Hernandez and Gonzalez-Arzate in the early-morning hours of Feb. 24.
They said Hernandez left his house around 1 a.m. in his black Acura. Around 1:45 a.m., the car was spotted going northbound on Hiltoncrest Street near Fallbrook Drive. The car crashed through a median, went across Fallbrook and came to rest in a ditch on Swanson Street.
About five minutes later, a man was seen running from the crash site with something in his right hand. That person went to hide in some trees until about 4 a.m., when the crashed car left the scene.
It was later found burned in a nearby neighborhood about 200 feet away from Hernandez's body, according to authorities.
Digital tracks
Investigators were able to identify Gonzalez-Arzate as a suspect in the case through his digital footprint. His phone number was associated with a CashApp account that tried to receive money from Hernandez after he was killed, according to court records.
During an interview, Hernandez's sister told investigators that her brother had a child with his girlfriend. When the girlfriend was interviewed, authorities learned more about the plans Gonzalez-Arzate had after Hernandez's death.
Hernandez's girlfriend said she knew something was off because of the messages she was getting. They didn't sound like Hernandez, who she had dated for about three years.
She said she started getting messages around 2:45 a.m. that morning. She said that whoever was sending the messages was pretending to be Hernandez in an effort to get her to send them money through CashApp.
She admitted to investigators that her boyfriend sold drugs and used Instagram and other ways to communicate with buyers.
Investigators looked into Hernandez's CashApp history and found four attempted transactions around the time they believe he was killed. None of the transactions went through due to monthly limits.
When investigators checked the phone number associated with the account, they said it came back to Gonzalez-Arzate.
Burned car
Hernandez's burned Acura was found about 200 feet away from where his body was found, along Fourth Street near the intersection of Grand Avenue and Prairie Drive.
During an interview with investigators, Gonzalez-Arzate initially told them he didn't know about Hernandez's death. When authorities presented the evidence to him, they said he changed his story.
He told them that he met Hernandez that night to buy drugs. He said he met him and got into the front passenger seat of his car. Gonzalez-Arzate told investigators that a friend of his was hiding nearby and started shooting into the car, even though there was no bullet damage to the outside of the car and Hernandez was shot on the right side of his body, according to court documents.
Gonzalez-Arzate said he saw the car crash into the ditch as he ran away from the scene. A short time later, Gonzalez-Arzate told authorities that he went back up to the car while carrying the gun his friend had fired. He said he went to the driver's side and saw that Hernandez was still breathing. He said Hernandez unlocked his phone and asked him to call his girlfriend. That's when he said Hernandez passed out. He said he didn't call 911 because he was scared.
Gonzalez-Arzate told investigators that he moved Hernandez's body to the front passenger seat and drove his car away from the crash scene. He said on his way to the back of the neighborhood, he saw the same friend that he claimed fired shots at Hernandez's car earlier. Gonzalez-Arzate said the friend pulled Hernandez's body from the car and dragged it to the woods. Gonzalez-Arzate also said the friend set Hernandez's car on fire and also admitted to trying to get money from Hernandez's girlfriend.
