On the evening of October 31, 2020, a gathering in a home on the 5500 block of Yates Avenue North in Crystal, Minnesota, ended with the death of 26-year-old Maricio Mata-Thelen of St. Paul. Police arrived around 9 p.m. after a gunshot was reported and found Mata-Thelen on the floor with a fatal gunshot wound to his torso; first responders pronounced him dead at the scene.

Three other men who were in the house were initially uncooperative, gave conflicting accounts of their locations, and would not identify who fired the weapon. The man later identified as responsible, 29-year-old Angel Villalva, left the house and then walked into the Bloomington Police Department that same night carrying a .45-caliber handgun wrapped in a jacket and confessed to killing Mata-Thelen. Villalva said the shooting was a tragic mistake, claiming the gun discharged while he was trying to fix an apparent jam.

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s autopsy found the bullet entered the back of Mata-Thelen’s neck and traveled downward through lung, stomach, and colon, a trajectory inconsistent with the ricochet account, and scene evidence did not support a ricochet. Authorities charged Angel Villalva with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Did anyone who knew Maricio or was at that gathering see something that could clarify what happened that night?