Jeremiah Nathaniel Padilla was a 19-year-old Hispanic man from Odessa, Texas, remembered by family as hardworking and kind. A graduate of Odessa High who worked in landscaping for three years, he was described as an amazing dad to his baby girl and a beloved son and brother. Friends and family called him Jerm and BaBa.

On the evening of December 19, 2022, Padilla was at his home in the 13000 block of Firewater Trail. Around 6 p.m. he went outside to meet people who had arrived in a pickup truck for what investigators say was an arranged trade of a weapon. A conversation turned into an exchange of gunfire; Padilla was struck and taken to Medical Center Hospital, where he died of his injuries. Crime scene technicians recovered shell casings from two different caliber weapons at the residence and inside the truck.

A 16-year-old boy who had been in the pickup was also shot and was taken to Odessa Regional Medical Center in a bullet-riddled Chevrolet Silverado; he later declined to speak with detectives. In March 2023 the Ector County Sheriff’s Office arrested the 16-year-old, identified as Khaleel Ashton Burford, and charged him with first-degree murder; in August 2023 a judge certified Burford, then 17, to stand trial as an adult and he was released on a $50,000 surety bond.

Did anyone in Odessa know Padilla, the pickup’s occupants, or have information about the weapon trade that evening?