The victim, Juan Capote-Palma, was found with a gunshot wound to the head. Houston Fire Department paramedics transported him to a nearby hospital in critical condition, where he later died.<\/p>\n
Witnesses reported seeing several masked men in dark clothing running through the area and hearing multiple gunshots. According to court documents, Capote-Palma\u2019s vehicle crashed into several cars in the apartment complex parking lot. A semi-automatic pistol was found next to an empty backpack in the victim\u2019s car, and a shell casing from a 9-millimeter handgun was found several feet away.<\/p>\n
Investigators recovered Capote-Palma\u2019s cell phone from the floorboard of his car. Text message conversations on the phone suggested he was involved in selling marijuana and, to a lesser extent, other drugs. Authorities concluded he had been robbed during a drug deal.<\/p>\n
One of Capote-Palma\u2019s last communications was an Instagram conversation with a user named \u201cluljaso__.\u201d Their discussion began an hour before the shooting, with the last exchange occurring just eight minutes before officers were alerted. The two users discussed a marijuana sale.<\/p>\n
Authorities obtained a search warrant for the \u201cluljaso__\u201d account from Meta Platforms, discovering the account had been deactivated one day after the shooting. Despite this, investigators recovered three key pieces of evidence: the user referred to himself as \u201cJason\u201d in a message, linked the account to a \u201ctaylojaso\u201d email address, and posted a video showing a man posing alone with several assault-style firearms.<\/p>\n
\n<\/ul>\nInvestigators ran the name \u201cJason Taylor\u201d through a Harris County database and identified a man they believed was the individual in the video. In March 2024, authorities visited the Alief school where Taylor was enrolled. After showing him the photos recovered from Instagram, Taylor began talking and positively identified the men involved in the crime.<\/p>\n
Taylor said another man had planned the robbery, instructing him to message Capote-Palma about buying marijuana. He said the man used his grandmother\u2019s car to drive Taylor, Barnes, and Brazil to the scene. Each man was armed, and Taylor said they planned to \u201cdo the play.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Taylor, the three men entered Capote-Palma\u2019s car to complete the deal. One of them pistol-whipped the victim, causing him to start driving. Taylor said the car crashed while the men fired guns in Capote-Palma\u2019s direction. Brazil, identified by Taylor as his cousin, was shot in the leg while sitting in the back seat. After Capote-Palma was shot, Taylor said the victim\u2019s brain was \u201cbleeding and leaking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barnes was arrested on Sept. 18, the day after the murder, for a separate aggravated robbery earlier that month. While in custody, he allegedly spoke on the phone about the murder and Brazil being shot and reportedly mentioned having the drugs stolen during the robbery.<\/p>\n
In June 2024, authorities interviewed Barnes, who admitted to being at the scene with Taylor and Brazil. He said they brought money to make the transaction appear legitimate. Barnes said he did not fire shots but heard gunfire as he attempted to open the car door and then fled the scene. In a later call with his mother, Barnes reportedly said investigators \u201cknow everything\u201d and his DNA would link him to the scene.<\/p>\n
In November 2024, investigators interviewed Brazil at the same Alief school where they had spoken to Taylor. Brazil said he was shot while walking alone through the complex but could not explain how it happened. Authorities reviewed the evidence with him, but he maintained his account.<\/p>\n
Taylor and Barnes were arrested by HPD officers on Nov. 24 and Dec. 1, respectively.<\/p>\n
Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n
More Stories Like This In Our Email Newsletter<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three Houston men have been charged with capital murder in the fatal shooting of a 20-year-old man at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":206797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[4219,196567,4345,425,9620,50,7272,101,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-420558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-drug-deal","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-local","12":"tag-murder","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-robbery","15":"tag-shooting","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115652615529433335","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}