{"id":764345,"date":"2026-04-30T20:18:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T20:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/764345\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T20:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T20:18:16","slug":"houston-man-indicted-on-capital-murder-charge-in-ding-dong-ditch-shooting-death-of-11-year-old-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/764345\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston man indicted on capital murder charge in \u2018ding dong ditch\u2019 shooting death of 11-year-old \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/court\/2025\/09\/17\/531151\/houston-man-accused-of-killing-11-year-old-boy-over-prank-asks-judge-for-lower-bond-amount\/attachment\/image-68-3\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-531156\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-68-1000x835.jpg\" alt=\"Gonzalo Leon Jr.\" width=\"1000\" height=\"835\"   data-eio=\"p\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Bianca Seward\/Houston Public Media<\/p>\n<p>Gonzalo Leon Jr., a Houston man charged with murder in the shooting death of 11-year-old Julian Guzman, walks into a Harris County courtroom on Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>A Houston man was indicted on a capital murder charge Wednesday for allegedly shooting and killing an 11-year-old boy who was playing a prank, according to court documents. <\/p>\n<p>Gonzalo Leon Jr., 43, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/news\/crime\/2025\/09\/02\/529822\/houston-man-charged-with-murder-in-shooting-death-of-11-year-old-boy-who-was-playing-ding-dong-ditch\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">arrested last September<\/a> and charged with murder in the shooting death of Julian Guzman, 11. Guzman was shot in the back on Aug. 30, 2025, while allegedly playing a &#8220;ding dong ditch&#8221; prank with a cousin, according to police. <\/p>\n<p>A Harris County grand jury this week elevated the charge to capital murder, which carries a punishment of death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.<\/p>\n<p>Sign up for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/hellohouston\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>According to Leon&#8217;s arrest affidavit, Guzman&#8217;s cousin told police he saw Leon exit the home wearing all black and shoot into the ground once before raising the pistol and shooting Guzman. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/news\/crime\/2025\/09\/03\/529997\/bail-set-at-1-million-for-houston-man-accused-of-killing-11-year-old-boy-over-door-knocking-prank\/attachment\/fatal-doorbell-prank\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-529989\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/AP25245615182980-1000x667.jpg\" alt=\"Ding Dong Ditch fatal shooting Julian Guzman memorial\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\"   data-eio=\"p\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>AP Photo\/David J. Phillip<\/p>\n<p>A makeshift memorial for 11-year-old Julian Guzman, who was shot and killed during a doorbell prank, is shown Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, in Houston.<\/p>\n<p>Leon has been in the Harris County Jail under a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/court\/2025\/09\/22\/531593\/bond-raised-to-1-3-million-for-houston-man-accused-of-killing-11-year-old-boy-over-prank\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$1.3 million bond<\/a> since September. He is set to have a bond hearing for his capital murder charge on Friday. <\/p>\n<p>Leon&#8217;s defense attorney could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bianca Seward\/Houston Public Media Gonzalo Leon Jr., a Houston man charged with murder in the shooting death of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":764346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[7304,281,4219,106113,6386,16309,4345,425,50,358,3187],"class_list":["post-764345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-capital-murder","tag-court","tag-crime","tag-ding-dong-ditch","tag-harris-county","tag-harris-county-jail","tag-houston","tag-local","tag-news","tag-texas","tag-tx"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116495509865861351","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764345","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=764345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}