On November 28, 2023, at about 4:24 p.m., officers from the Odessa Police Department responded to a reported shooting in the 4300 block of Clover Avenue in Odessa, Texas. They found 38-year-old John Michael Mikey Adauto in the front yard with a fatal gunshot wound to the head; medical personnel pronounced him dead at the scene.

Inside the home officers encountered 57-year-old Carlos Ruben Cruz armed with a firearm. Cruz complied with commands and was taken into custody. Investigators say the confrontation began during a dispute over missing drugs; a witness identified as Adauto’s sister-in-law reported that Cruz accused Adauto of hiding the drugs, searched his pockets, and then allegedly shot him in the face. The gun used was later determined to have been reported stolen from Monahans, Texas. Cruz was charged with murder, a first-degree felony, and theft of a firearm, a state jail felony, and booked with combined bonds totaling $1,006,000.

Adauto, born November 18, 1985, in Fort Stockton, Texas, worked in the oilfield and was known as a talented artist who enjoyed painting, drawing, and tattooing. Does anyone have information about Adauto’s last hours or witnessed the incident on Clover Avenue?