Joel Bravo, 26, was shot in the head and killed on January 15, 2005, during an altercation tied to a drug transaction in South Lake Tahoe, California. His body was found in his rented unit at the Blackwood Apartments on Spruce Avenue in the Bijou area. Bravo also used the alias Elijah Deluna; police said multiple stolen vehicles were parked outside his apartment.

A 20-year-old acquaintance, Javier Acevedo Garcia, was arrested March 17, 2005, and charged as a felony accessory. Prosecutors said Garcia had intimate knowledge of the crime but gave conflicting statements — at first denying recent contact with Bravo, later saying he had been in the apartment when the killing occurred and suggesting responsibility lay with either Bravo’s teenage roommate or another man present. Prosecutors alleged Garcia was concealing the shooter; no one has been formally charged with Bravo’s murder.

Anyone who knew Bravo, his associates, or who has information about that January 15 incident is asked to come forward.