A man learned of his brother’s death on Feb. 1, 2014, after then 24-year-old Joseph Espinoza accidentally called him and left a life-changing voicemail.
“At about (9:51 p.m., the man) noticed he had a voicemail which had been dialed from Joseph Espinoza’s cellphone,” a probable cause affidavit states. “In the voicemail, (the man) overheard several voices talking about leaving someone at the hospital and to run the traffic lights.”
The man called Espinoza back, the document states.
“Joseph told him it had gone bad and for him to start checking the hospital for his brother,” the probable cause affidavit states.
Three minutes after that accidental phone call, 22-year-old Mission resident David Allen Means was found lying on his back with a gunshot wound to his chest in the south parking lot of the Mission hospital, according to authorities.
Meanwhile, 32-year-old Pharr resident Arturo Hinojosa was lying in the grass bleeding in front of a residence at 4805 La Vista Ave. He used his dying words to tell a detective that he and four other men were at the residence to steal marijuana.
More than six years after that deadly night, the Texas Department of Public Safety pulled over Espinoza — who is identified in jail and court records as Jose Eduardo Espinoza — on May 1 for reckless driving and evading arrest. During a records check, the troopers realized the McAllen Police Department had issued a warrant for murder and aggravated robbery for Espinoza stemming from that fatal night.
Means’ brother told investigators that his brother left his home with Espinoza the night he was shot and killed, according to a probable cause affidavit. Authorities encountered the man at the hospital while he searched for his brother.
While at the scene, police met then-33-year-old Hector Nicolas Medina Castillo, who lived at the residence on La Vista. He was standing by a maroon Chevy Tahoe that had bullet holes and a shattered rear window.
“He told the officer somebody came to his residence to rob him and that they shot at him,” the probable cause affidavit for Espinoza’s arrest states. “He also told the officer he had fired back at the males and that he had hit someone.”
This officer went to search the immediate area for a light-colored SUV seen by a witness speeding away, but couldn’t find it. When he returned, he found a woman backing that maroon Chevy Tahoe out of the driveway.
“The officer told them they could not leave,” the probable cause affidavit states.
That’s when Castillo told the officer he was going to walk his wife and children to a relatives’ home nearby, authorities said in the affidavit.
“The family walked east from the location,” the charging document states.
That is apparently the last time police talked to Castillo, who has a warrant for murder and aggravated robbery. He has not been arrested or faced these charges. McAllen police also have a warrant for Luz Aurora Rivera Ibarra for possession of marijuana. She is not named in the probable cause affidavits.
The charging document also details the scene of the shooting McAllen police encountered that night.
“McAllen officers approached 4805 La Vista where they observed several bullet holes to the front of the residence and blood on the walkway leading up to the front door,” the affidavit states.
The officers entered the residence but no one was inside, according to authorities.
“Several spent rifle casings were found inside the home as well as several bundles of marijuana,” the affidavit states. “It was apparent that several rounds were fired from within the home outwards towards the inside of the front door of the said residence.”
Police also found a zip-tie on the pavement by the front door as well as several more inside an abandoned beige Chevy Tahoe that was left with all of its doors open, according to the affidavit.
Aside from Espinoza, only one person has been arrested in the case. His name is Jaime Horacio Saldivar, 31.
He was arrested in 2015 and entered guilty pleas in 2016 to two counts of murder and a count of aggravated robbery. He was sentenced to a decade in prison and is eligible for parole in November.
Espinoza remains jailed on $1.5 million in bonds.
