Documents shed light on murder of Diaz-Delgado
TRENTON » Danny Diaz-Delgado’s love of video games and his desire to buy a PlayStation 4 gaming system led to his violent death last month.
Using a PS4 as bait, Rufus Thompson lured Diaz-Delgado into a Trenton alley behind the 300 block of Ardmore Avenue, abducted him into Hamilton Township and executed him near the Assunpink Creek about March 23 or March 24, according to the allegations cited in court documents.
Authorities arrested Thompson on March 31, charging him with counts of murder, robbery, kidnapping and weapons offenses. He made his firstcourt appearance on Monday and is scheduled to appear in court Thursday for a detention hearing.
Diaz-Delgado, 20, of Trenton, was arranging via Facebook Messenger to meet with Thompson in the area around South Cook and Culbertson avenues during the evening of March 23. He withdrew $240 from a Roebling Market ATM about 6 p.m. and drove to Jemison Alley seeking to buy a PS4 from Thompson in that area, according to court documents.
As a “fan of video games,” Diaz-Delgado specifically wanted to get the latest PlayStation for his younger brother and found an unknown seller on Facebook who was willing to sell the gaming console for a bargain price. But the arranged transaction between buyer and seller never occurred. Instead of
selling a video game console, authorities say 29-year-old Thompson kidnapped DiazDelgado at gunpoint and shot him multiple times along the banks of Assunpink Creek, leaving him for dead.
Digital images show Diaz-Delgado withdrawing money about 6 p.m. March 23 from a Chase Bank ATM at Roebling Market and also show a black male identified as Thompson using the victim’s banking info to withdraw $500 at 8:38 p.m. and an additional $200 two minutes later from the same ATM that Diaz-Delgado used earlier in the evening, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Police found Diaz-Delgado’s body about 2 p.m. March 24. He was lying face down with his hands bound behind his back. Authorities say Thompson used pink duct tape and a severed power cord to bind Diaz-Delgado’s hands and further used pink duct tape to cover the victim’s mouth.
Police on March 29 executed a search warrant at a city home on the 300 block of Ardmore Avenue where Thompson was known to
live. Detectives in the basement of the property recovered pink duct tape and found a television set lacking an electrical power cord, according to a March 30 sworn statement made by Detective Michael Castaldo of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office.
“At the crime scene, a cut power cord was found tied around the victim’s wrists, behind his back,” Castaldo states in his affidavit of probable cause. “Also, several articles of correspondence in the name of Rufus Thompson, along with an empty PlayStation 4 box were recovered.”
Prior to the kidnapping, authorities say Thompson communicated with Diaz-Delgado using Facebook Messenger. Thompson had a Facebook profile identifying himself as “Ru Hunter” and “Ru Real Right,” according to court documents.
Diaz-Delgado told family and friends that he was going to buy a PS4 from someone and that he was then going to buy PS4 video games from someone else during the evening of March 23. He said he would be back within an hour, but his mother reported him missing when he failed to return home as expected, according to the affidavit.
Diaz-Delgado suffered about six gunshot wounds in the back and about four more gunshot
wounds to his front torso area, according to Detective Michael Castaldo’s sworn statement. He says police found nine shell casings, consistent with a small-caliber firearm, along the embankment of the creek within a few feet of the victim’s body.
Thompson has been charged with firstdegree accomplice liability murder during commission of a crime, first-degree accomplice liability armed robbery, first-degree accomplice liability kidnapping, seconddegree unlawful possession of a handgun without a permit, second-degree possession of a firearm for an unlawful purpose, second-degree certain persons not to have a weapon due to a prior conviction, and first-degree accomplice liability purposeful murder. He previously served time in state prison for burglarizing properties in Ewing and Lawrence.
Prosecutors on Monday filed a pretrial detention motion seeking to keep Thompson locked up without bail pending final resolution of his case. He is scheduled to have a detention hearing 9 a.m. Thursday before Mercer County Superior Court Judge Ronald Susswein.
Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Heather Hadley is the prosecutor in the
case. It is not clear whether Thompson has retained a private attorney in the case. When Thompson made his first court appearance on Monday, he was represented by an assistant state deputy public defender, Deirdre C. Smith, according to court records.
A GoFundMe page has been created in Diaz-Delgado’s memory.
“Danny was a great friend, family member and an exceptional human being who was taken away too early from this Earth at just age 20,” the GoFundMe page says in an information blurb. The post described him as “hardworking” and “kindhearted” and urged people to donate to alleviate his family’s financial costs of the funeral.
Diaz-Delgado’s funeral was scheduled for Saturday, March 31, which by coincidence fell on the same date that police made an arrest in the homicide.
It is possible other suspects could be charged in the case. Police observed Thompson hanging out with a woman in the days following the murder, according to court records. For Thompson to be charged on the theory of accomplice liability implies someone else may have been the principal actor in the kidnapping-robbery-murder plot that left Diaz-Delgado tortured and executed.