Subway murder suspect turns himself in

The man charged with capital murder in the Feb. 22 fatal shooting of an 18-year-old Subway restaurant employee turned himself in to Houston police shortly after noon Friday. The suspect reportedly said he had evidence pointing to another person as the shooter, but the police chief said investigators are confident they found the right man.

Jeffery C. Archangel, a 25-year-old resident of Houston’s Alief area, was charged Thursday with killing Javier Flores when the teen intervened during an armed robbery at the 3933 Broadway location to protect a fellow employee — his mother.

‘We’re pretty confident’

Archangel turned himself in at the Houston Police Department’s downtown headquarters at 1200 Travis, accompanied by community activist Quanell X. Archangel did not comment to waiting reporters.

After a police officer handcuffed Archangel, Quanell told reporters Archangel was “adamant that he was not the shooter.” The activist, who got involved after Archangel called him early Friday, said Archangel has an audio recording that features the real shooter describing the crime in detail.

“This young man maintains his innocence. He says he was not even there,” Quanell said of Archangel, who said he was at a recording studio at the time of the fatal shooting. Archangel raps under the name “Skylar.”

However, Chief Art Acevedo said a few hours later that police believed they had the right suspect.

“We’re pretty confident,” Acevedo said at a news conference. “We’ve got witnesses, we’ve got good ballistics, we’ve got the murder weapon.”

Archangel had been out on a $30,000 bail bond after he was charged early last month with a robbery the same night of another Subway restaurant, this one at 4807 San Jacinto in the Museum District.

An investigator had “received information that defendant Jeffery Archangel was a possible suspect” in the Museum District robbery, according to a sworn statement filed April 5. The detective then put Archangel’s photo in a six-image photo spread, from which the robbery victim picked it out. The investigator wrote that Archangel’s facial features resembled the suspect in the video.

One more suspect

Acevedo said homicide investigators had multiple witnesses who put Archangel at the scene of both robberies. However, police did not have enough information early last month to charge him with murder as well as aggravated robbery, so he was able to make bail.

“We live in a society and a nation where you can’t just keep somebody behind bars because they’re suspected,” Acevedo said in response to a question about why Archangel was able to leave jail.

Archangel has no convictions on his criminal record and never previously was charged with a felony. Archangel’s courtappointed attorney in that case, Shannon Brichelle Baldwin, did not respond to requests for comment. Quanell said he had not spoken with Archangel about the robbery charge.

When asked about Quanell’s role in the case, Acevedo said that “anytime you can take a murder suspect off the street ... without anyone getting hurt, that’s a win.”

Acevedo added that police are still looking for at least one more suspect, whom prosecutors could charge with murder regardless of who pulled the trigger, thanks to Texas’ felony murder rule and law of parties that implicates all accomplices to a crime.

Anyone with information in the case is asked to call HPD Homicide at 713308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477).