A man remained in custody Thursday for allegedly shooting a woman in the head inside a vacant Fort Worth house last week after the two had sex, according to an arrest-warrant affidavit obtained from Fort Worth police.
Juan Garcia, 21, was arrested Tuesday and faces a murder charge, according to Tarrant County jail records. As of Thursday afternoon, his bail is set at $250,000.
Police were dispatched to a shooting call at a vacant home at 6401 Normandy Road on Jan. 5 around 8:12 a.m. Construction workers who had arrived at the empty house found an unresponsive woman, identified as 48-year-old Lakisha Washington, inside, the affidavit said.
Investigators found a wig near the woman that appeared to have a “distorted” bullet in it and a .45 cartridge, the court documents say.
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Washington was transported to the emergency room at John Peter Smith Hospital, where she was pronounced dead a day later, according to the affidavit.
The county medical examiner’s office ruled her cause of death as homicide by gunshot wound to the head.
During an interview with detectives, the construction worker reported arriving at the residence around 7:45 a.m. and parking on the street. He said he entered the house around 8 a.m., heard a moan and found Washington shortly after in a bedroom.
He said he called his employer who called police. The 911 call was placed at 8:07 a.m.
Detectives were able to retrieve surveillance video of the area, which showed a white Ford Focus driving west on Normandy Road around 6:03 a.m. The footage showed the Ford making a U-turn at Callahan Court before parking about seven houses away from where the shooting took place, the affidavit said.
About 10 minutes later, two people, one of whom appeared to be Washington and an unidentified male, walked by the house next to where she was shot. Washington was holding a bag in her left hand, while the man was empty-handed, according to the affidavit.
Using vehicle registration records, officers were able to identify Garcia as the man with Washington.
Around 7:23 a.m., Garcia walked away from the house, alone, holding a bag in his left hand, the affidavit said. He got in the Ford and drove east on Normandy Road.
The witness who found Washington did not arrive for another 20 minutes, leaving a gap between when Garcia left and when the first worker arrived, according to the affidavit.
Surveillance footage from earlier in the morning also placed Washington with Garcia between 4:20 a.m. and 5:46 a.m. at a local motel before traveling to the location where she was shot.
About three hours after Washington was found, detectives found Garcia’s car in a Family Dollar parking lot less than half a mile from the location of the shooting. Officers reviewed footage from that location in which Garcia entered and exited the store twice without stopping at the cash register.
On Jan. 7, officers conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle that Garcia was a passenger in. He agreed to come in and talk to investigators, the affidavit said.
Though Garcia initially denied recognizing the residence where the incident occurred, he changed his story once confronted, according to the affidavit. Garcia said he was driving his sister’s Ford when he picked up an older woman, presumed to be Washington, at East Lancaster Avenue who “agreed to have sex with him for $40.”
He said they then drove to an hourly motel on Lancaster Avenue, where Washington paid for the room. After about an hour of “unsuccessful” sex, they left, Garcia said.
Garcia said Washington directed him to the home on Normandy Road and instructed him to park several houses away. Once the two entered, Garcia said they engaged in sexual activities before Washington told him to start the vehicle and wait outside. Garcia reported that he didn’t see or hear any other individuals while in the house.
Garcia said he left without waiting for Washington and went to a nearby dollar store, where he admitted to stealing four bottles of tire shine, before returning home.
He denied shooting Washington, saying she was fine when he left. Before leaving the interview, Garcia consented to having his phone searched.
On Jan. 8, the Fort Worth police crime lab determined the impression left on the bullet casing from the scene was consistent with a XDS-45 pistol, the affidavit said.
On Monday, investigators searched through Garcia’s phone and found photos and videos of him posing with a black and brown XDS-45 pistol. They also found videos from last year of the pistol being fired, the affidavit said.
After determining where the videos were taken, officers went to the location — Shackleford Park — and located eleven .45 cartridge casings, which were the same brand and caliber as the casing from the murder scene.
The casings were submitted to be compared, and on Tuesday, investigators received an email stating that the casings from the scene and the park were consistent with having been fired from the same gun, the affidavit said.
Based on this, detectives believe Garcia shot Washington with the same gun he photographed and videoed himself with before leaving the scene in the Ford, according to the affidavit.