6th person held in gang killing in Spring ISD
Jose Villanueza’s final words were used asking his killers why.
A glance into the last moments of his life surfaced following the weekend arrest of a sixth person in the August 2018 MS-13-linked killing on Spring ISD property.
Henry Joel Saravia-Lovo, 18, told authorities that he was ordered to kill 24-year-old Villanueza for disparaging members of the MS-13 transnational gang during a rap battle, according to court documents.
The El Salvador national known as “Destino” packed a gun and went to the empty field next to Lewis Elementary School in Harris County where Villanueza was expecting to smoke marijuana.
Saravia-Lovo began hacking him with a machete instead.
Villanueza made a desperate attempt to escape his attackers and he almost had a chance.
Saravia-Lovo said his gun jammed, but another accused accomplice opened fire on Villanueza and fatally struck him.
Saravia-Lovo has been charged with murder in Villanueza’s death and is being held at the Harris County Jail with bail set at $100,000. Federal authorities have placed an immigration hold on him.
Two witnesses tied Saravia-Lovo to the death, prosecutors said Monday during his probable cause hearing. One of them was Karla Morales, the teen girl who helped lure Villanueza to his death with the promise of birthday weed, and the other was Oscar Arman Lozano Aparicio, one of the drivers who ferried the alleged gang members to a field on Spears Road.
Saravia-Lovo drove another vehicle carrying other alleged members, prosecutors said.
Morales said her role was to lure Villanueza out of his apartment — with the promise of drugs — and to the field where he would be ambushed, prosecutors said.
Court documents list the teen has having a Houston address, but both Morales and Aparacio said he was from Tomball, the same city where Aparacio lived.
Mario Guevara, Francisco Ancheta-Aquino, Francisco FloresSalazar are also being held in Villanueza’s death.
Guevara, who Villanueza knew from the landscaping outfit they both worked for, is alleged to have ordered the hit on him, according to documents.
The latest arrest came as a surprise since Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in June that Lozano Aparcio would be the final suspect charged in Villanueza's death.