AUSTIN (KXAN) – A teenager was charged with first-degree murder May 25, according to court records.
In the arrest warrant, law enforcement said it had reason to connect Juan Lopez-Espinoza to a May 23 murder in south Austin.
There were discrepancies in the documents and reports about the age of Lopez-Espinoza. He was listed as both 17 years old and 18 years old in official records.
In the initial investigation, the Austin Police Department said an “altercation” led to a shooting in the 1800 block of West Slaughter Lane.
A witness called 911 and reported seeing the victim, later identified as 36-year-old Jose Alberto Aguirre Castellanos, lying on the ground and not breathing.
APD later found a man, identified as Lopez-Espinoza, hiding in a treehouse in the backyard of someone’s residence.
Police arrested the man, and when he was asked why he was detained, Lopez-Espinoza told police it was because somebody in a black car shot at him first.
According to the affidavit, defects on the vehicle Juan was in showed perforations that originated from the inside.
“[Law officials] did not observe any further defects on the exterior of the vehicle that would suggest or lead credence to having been fired upon with a shotgun,” the affidavit said.
Lopez-Espinoza is in custody at Travis County jail with a $300,000 bond, according to records.
There were two other suspects mentioned in the affidavit related to the shooting incident, but they were not fully identified in the document.
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