2 charged with murder in cellphone robbery
Two men believed to be connected to the Southwest Cholos street gang have been charged with capital murder in the 2016 stabbing death of a Chinatown resident over a cellphone.
Christian Enamorado and Roger Avila-Godinez, both 21, each is charged in the early morning slaying of Jonatan Casimiro Flores on Feb. 6, 2016. Enamorado is in state custody and Avila in federal custody, each on separate, unrelated charges, Houston police said. It is unknown if Flores’ death was gang-related.
Flores, 30, and his roommate were sitting in a car in their apartment complex in the 9500 block of Beechnut, near the Sam Houston Tollway, when two masked men attacked them about 5 a.m. The attackers opened the doors, placed knives against their throats and demanded money, according to a criminal complaint filed with the Harris County District Clerk.
The roommate told police the masked men took both his and Flores’ cellphones, then stabbed Flores to death when he struggled against the attackers, according to the complaint.
Police tracked down one cellphone at the home of a known Southwest Cholos member, who told police he hosted a party on Feb. 6, which two other gang members, known as “Lagrimitas” and “Soldado,” attended, according to the complaint. The party’s host said “Lagrimitas” and “Soldado” had brought new phones to the party, one of which belonged to Flores’ roommate, the complaint reads.
The phone’s data indicated it belonged to “Lagrimitas,” a name police already had linked to Enamorado through the department’s database of gang members. A fingerprint on the phone was matched to Avila-Godinez, also known as “Soldado,” according to the complaint.
Nine months later, police interviewed Enamorado, who was in the Harris County jail on an unrelated robbery charge. He told police that he was with “Soldado” and another gang member, “Skimpo,” when the robbery and death occurred, but never left the car, the complaint reads.
Last month, nearly two years after that interview, police showed a photo array, which included Enamorado, to Flores’ roommate, who identified him as one of the attackers, according to the complaint.
Last week, investigators interviewed Avila-Godinez, who was in the midst of deportation proceedings at a Pennsylvania prison. Avila-Godinez told them that he and Enamorado robbed Flores and his roommate, while “Skimpo” and two women waited in the car, and that Enamorado had stabbed Flores to death while the roommate fled.
In October 2017, Enamorado pleaded guilty to assaulting a man in Houston with a screwdriver and a baseball bat on Nov. 16, 2016.