|
Only have a minute? Listen instead
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
EDINBURG — The 21-year-old Alamo man convicted of the murder of a Weslaco doctor was sentenced to 40 years in prison Monday morning.
Joel Ismael Gonzalez was sentenced after entering a guilty plea for the murder of Dr. John Jesus Dominguez, who was shot and killed during a robbery on Nov. 7, 2019.
Gonzalez wasn’t alone during the shooting. Weslaco resident Luis Antonio Lopez Valenzuela, 23, and Josue Benavidez Torres, 35, also of Alamo, were present.
Investigators initially believed Dominguez’s death was a result of a two-vehicle crash on Business 83 in Weslaco, but witnesses came forward and told authorities that a shooting had occurred, according to probable cause affidavits.
Surveillance footage showed Dominguez leaving his business and entering his white vehicle when a dark blue Hyundai Sonata blocked the doctor from leaving the parking lot.
The video shows a man, later identified as Gonzalez, holding a weapon exiting the Sonata and attempting to open Dominguez’s passenger door, but the doctor manages to flee as Gonzalez takes aim and shoots at Dominguez before crashing into another vehicle.
On Jan. 6, 2020, Weslaco Police Chief Joel Rivera said during a press conference that Benavidez received information from a “curandero” about Dominguez and masterminded the robbery.
He believed Dominguez carried $25,000 in a briefcase.
“Benavide[z] states that he was approached to secure this money by some force using threats of exposure to prior bad acts he committed with the person that contracted him, identified by Benavides as [redacted],” the charging document said. “Benavide[z] states he recruits both Joel Gonzalez and the Driver, who he identifies as Luis, to be the ones to make contact with the Doctor and extort the money from him by force.”
Neither of the men were arrested in the immediate aftermath of the shooting until a deputy in Runnels County, which is near San Angelo, opened their own investigation regarding another robbery.
That robbery involved Gonzalez’s brother, who allegedly assaulted and robbed his coworkers of $12,500 and was chased until he crashed a familiar dark blue Sonata before fleeing on foot with his girlfriend.
During the investigation, it’s revealed that the Sonata is the same one involved in Dominguez’s murder which led to the arrest of Gonzalez, Benavidez and Valenzuela, who was the driver during the shooting.
Both Benavidez and Valenzuela remained jailed and are awaiting trial. Court records show that Valenzuela rejected a plea deal while Benavidez is still set to plead at the end of the month.
