Affidavit: Man shot and killed former employer days after he was fired for alleged theft
The Fabens man arrested in connection to the shooting death of a Tornillo man allegedly killed the victim days after he was fired, a criminal complaint obtained by ABC-7 states.
On February 23, 2019, detectives with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office arrested Eduardo Garza Santillana, 41, and charged him with Capital Murder and Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon.
Garza Santillana allegedly shot 63-year-old Miguel Rivera and 44-year-old Abelardo Moreno at the property located on the 23100 block of Alameda in Tornillo, Texas on July 25, 2018. Investigators say Garza Santillana used a .22 caliber revolver to shoot Rivera in the forehead and Moreno in the neck.
Moreno, an employee of Rivera, survived the shooting. After shooting both men, Santillana allegedly stole Rivera’s black Nissan pickup truck and fled the scene, a criminal complaint states.
A criminal complaint obtained by ABC-7 states Rivera hired Garza Santillana to work on his property and Garza Santillana had been living at Rivera’s property for a couple of months. On July 9, 2018, Rivera fired Garza Santillana because he believed Garza Santillana was stealing from him and asked him to leave his property, a criminal complaint states.
When sheriff’s deputies arrived at the scene of the shooting on July 25, 2018, Moreno told them a man wearing a black ski mask, armed with a black revolver, shot him in the neck and his boss in the head. Moreno also told deputies the gunman stole his boss’ pickup and fled the scene.
The day of the shooting, investigators spoke with Rivera’s sister, who lived about 100 yards away from Rivera’s property. The woman told investigators she was watering her trees when she heard two gunshots, fired seconds apart, coming from her brother’s property. Investigators also spoke with Rivera’s son, who said he suspected Garza Santillana was the shooter because he had recently been fired for theft. The son was able to provide investigators with the Texas registration information for his father’s stolen pickup truck.
That same day, investigators located the stolen Nissan pickup at an apartment complex at 501 N.E. J Street in Fabens, Texas, approximately 18 miles from the scene of the deadly shooting. During their examination of the pickup, investigators lifted fingerprints from an insurance card in the glove box. At the apartment complex, investigators spoke with Garza Santillana’s mother, who told them her son lived with his sister on the 1200 block of Twig in Fabens.
Deputies eventually located Garza Santillana on the 700 block of N. Faben Road. At the time, Garza Santillana was allegedly sitting on a porch with two women. Once the suspect was taken into custody, one of the women allegedly told investigators she spotted Garza Santillana walking from behind her cousin’s property at 719 N. Fabens Road.
When investigators spoke with the owner of the property at 719 N. Fabens Road, he allegedly gave them consent to search his property. Investigators allegedly found an ice box containing a car stereo, a .22 caliber revolver, knives and a bandana. The gun allegedly had four live rounds and two empty chambers, the criminal complaint states.
Under interrogation, Gaza Santillana explained where he was at the time of the shooting in Tornillo. “Detectives found several inconsistencies as to the defendant’s whereabouts,” the criminal complaint states. Still, detectives released Santillana pending further investigation, the court document states.
A forensic investigation determined the fingerprints lifted from the insurance card in the victim’s stolen pickup truck matched the fingerprints lifted from the car stereo found with the revolver in the ice box at 719 N. Fabens Road. Additionally, Garza Santillana’s DNA was allegedly found on the bandana found in the ice box. Rivera’s son also identified the knives found in the ice box as belonging to his slain father, court documents state.
Also, a projectile removed from Moreno, the employee shot in the neck, “is believed to be a .22 caliber round,” the criminal complaint states.
With the help of the FBI, detectives analyzed Garza Santillana’s cell phone records and placed him near the victim’s property in between July 23rd and July 25th, a criminal complaint states.
Garza Santillana remains jailed on a $2.5-million bond, online jail records state.
