A 17-year-old boy in Texas is accused of killing the stepfather of the girl he started stalking because she turned him down romantically. During a court hearing, the victim’s family watched from the crowd.
Houston KHOU, a CBS affiliate, said it wasn’t clear who the kisses were aimed at during the meeting where Cristian Gasca Martinez’s bond was raised from $200,000 to $2 million.
Family members of both the victim and the suspect were there. He is thought to have killed Osvaldo Casas, 37, in August.
In a GoFundMe, Casas’s wife Judith Molina said she was glad that the bond got stronger. She also thanked everyone who helped pay for the funeral of her husband.
They also used some of the money to help raise their son, who was born just three days after Casas was buried.
It sounds like Molina might have to move her family to a different area because Gasca Martinez’s friends are making her daughter feel bad.
Gasca Martinez was arrested for murder by the Houston Police Department on Friday. It is said that Gasca Martinez shot Casas just before 12:30 a.m. on August 10 in the 600 block of Loper Street in southeast Houston.
When police arrived, they found Casas badly hurt from being shot several times. The paramedics said he was dead at the scene.
At the time, police said Casas had talked to a “suspicious” person on his street before the killing. An investigation found that Gasca Martinez had been interested in dating Casas’ 16-year-old granddaughter, but she told him she wasn’t interested, according to a complaint.
Gasca Martinez is said to have started following the girl around. A hearing report from KHOU says that he kept calling the girl even though she told him to stop, and she had to block his number.
He is also said to have made threats on social media by sharing pictures of himself with a gun. The court charge said that Gasca Martinez then shot Casas “in response to being turned down by the girl.”
Molinár said on the GoFundMe page that her husband died “bravely protecting our family.”
“Osvaldo was thrilled at the thought of meeting his bundle of joy and becoming a dad,” she wrote.
“A man of deep love and kindness,” she called her husband.
Molina said, “He was loved by so many in our community and never hesitated to lend a hand.” He was also a huge Dallas Cowboys fan.
Gasca Martinez was caught on Thursday and taken to the Harris County Jail, where he is still being held.
Molina told KHOU that she was glad the suspect had been caught.
She said, “I know that arresting him won’t bring him back, but I’m glad someone did it.”