Four teens from Texas were arrested for allegedly luring and killing a man through a catfishing scheme. The group used a fake Facebook profile to lure the man and shot him to death. Here’s how the group hatched the plan and brutally took the life of a 22-year-old.
Cyle Flores, 18, Jeremiah Marquez, 18, Justin Angel Hernandez, 22, and Edgar Alfonso Castillo, 17, all pleaded guilty to a murder they plotted. The group of teenagers decided to make a fake Facebook profile under the name Kaelani Moore.
With the profile, they catfished 22-year-old Israel Martinez. Israel, who messaged the fake profile while believing that Kaelani was a real person. He then agreed to meet her without knowing what awaited him at the decided location.
The group of teenagers gave Martinez the address of a house that they managed to break into. Soon after arriving at the address, he was shot to death. Witnesses who came forward during the investigation shared how they had seen multiple individuals flee the location of the murder, according to KWTX.
When authorities arrived at the location, they found shell casings and several types of firearms at the scene. They also found Martinez’s wallet, cellphone, and several other things lying near his body. When they looked into the phone as a part of the investigation, they found a trail that led them straight to the suspects.
The cops found the messages exchanged between Martinez and the fake account. Soon, they traced the group of four teenagers down and brought them in. It was concluded that it was Hernandez and Marquez who fired the shots that killed Martinez.
Waco Police revealed that the fake account was made to “set up the murder victim.” Flores, Marquez, Hernandez, and Castillo were eventually charged with capital murder. The initial charges were reduced after the culprits agreed to enter a plea deal with the local prosecutors.
McLennan County Prosecutors Kristi DeCluitt and Rebeckah Lawson spoke about how the age of the defendants is unimportant, given how heinous the crime was.
“Each conviction in this case highlights gun violence will not be tolerated in our community, and our office will continue to target those who do harm, regardless of their age,” the prosecutors noted.
The joint statement from the prosecutors revealed that the three minors involved in the murder were certified as adults. “They committed, along with one adult defendant, a calculated social media scheme to lure the victim to rob him, and ultimately, take his life,” the statement read.
Abel Reyna, who served as Flores’s attorney, labeled the case “a very sad case all the way around.” Martinez is survived by a young son. Valarie Martinez, his sister, also lost her life to gun violence in 2017 when she was just 24 years old.
Marquez and Hernandez are sentenced to 35 years in prison, while Castillo was given a sentence of 30 years. Flores was given a sentence of 25 years.
