Suspect is charged in South Side slaying
A suspect accused of leaving a man for dead after shooting him near Confluence Park last year allegedly abducted him instead of another man he was looking for, an arrest warrant affidavit states.
Jesus Abram Mendoza, 42, is charged with murder in the death of 21-year-old Jake Selph. His bail was set at $250,000.
On Sept. 11 at 5:30 p.m., Selph was shot in the back in the 300 block of West Mitchell, San Antonio police said. Witnesses only saw Selph collapsing after they heard gunfire and a man leaving in a gray Jaguar.
Selph later died at San Antonio Military Medical Center
witness told police that Mendoza, identified as “Big Elmo,” was armed with a handgun when he searched a home in Elmendorf an hour before Selph was shot.
Mendoza was looking for a man who had been arrested alongside his brother for illegally dumping tires in Atascosa County.
When Mendoza did not find the man he was looking for, a witness said he took a different gun from a man fixing an air conditioner at the home.
One witness said that Selph wanted to get the weapon back and went with Mendoza, but other witnesses said that Selph was taken at gunpoint into a 2017 Jaguar, investigators said.
A witness who said she feared for Selph’s well-being called him about 11 minutes before he was killed.
Selph told her “everything was cool,” an affidavit states.
On Sept. 12, Mendoza showed up visibly drunk and high at his family’s business, Mendoza’s Auto Sales, at 6234 IH 35 South, police said.
He tried to buy a gun from a family member, but they told to him leave since he was not welcome, the affidavit states.
Mendoza went back to his car and was about to leave, but instead pulled out a knife and got back out, police said.
That’s when his brother shot him in the leg, investigators said.
Mendoza jumped back inside his car and reversed it out of the business, the affidavit states.
He lost control and kept going, backing over a grassy median and onto the main lanes of Interstate 35.
His car was hit by another, causing a chain-reaction accident with several other cars and an 18wheeler, police said.
The highway was shut and Mendoza was hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said.
On Sept. 18, he was arrested for aggravated assault. He posted a $75,000 bond and was released that day.
The charge was dismissed in November, according to court records.
Mendoza has a lengthy criminal record dating back to 1996. It includes assault causing bodily injury, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and assault of a public servant.