Angel Salazar

Angel Salazar was a 28-year-old Hispanic man born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. In the summer of 2015, just days before what would have been his 29th birthday, his life was brought to a brutal and tragic end.

On August 15, 2015, Salazar was forcibly taken from a home on the 400 block of West Drexel Avenue. His kidnappers transported him to a vacant, second-floor apartment in the 4300 block of South Flores Street. For three days, he was held captive and subjected to unimaginable torture. His captors bound his wrists and ankles, beat him with a pistol, stabbed him, and cut him. The ordeal ended when, on orders from a drug cartel, one of the men placed a pillow over Salazar's head and shot him.

Three days later, on August 18, neighbors near the abandoned apartment complex reported a foul odor. San Antonio police responded to the scene and discovered Angel Salazar’s badly decomposed body left in a bathtub. The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office later ruled his death a homicide, noting he had sustained at least 29 cuts to his head and neck.

The subsequent investigation by the San Antonio Police Department revealed the kidnapping and murder were a contract killing ordered by a drug cartel, allegedly over a debt Salazar owed. The investigation led to the arrests of several individuals. George Quintanilla, 58, was charged with kidnapping for allegedly leaving the door of his home unlocked to facilitate the abduction. Rene Guerrero, 23, Rudy Duque, 32, and others were also charged with aggravated kidnapping. Eric Ortega, 35, was charged with capital murder, accused of ordering the hit and promising the perpetrators $20,000, though he reportedly paid them in drugs instead.

The man identified as the ringleader and killer, 40-year-old Roberto "Tiny" Aguilar, went on the run but eventually surrendered to police after seeing news reports that he was wanted. In April 2017, Aguilar stood trial for capital murder in the 144th District Court. Prosecutor Catherine Hayes told the jury that Salazar was "pistol whipped, cut and sliced" before being shot in the back of the head. Aguilar’s defense attorney argued his client was afraid for his own safety due to the cartel's involvement.

After a trial that detailed the "savage, cold-blooded and brutal" nature of the crime, the jury took about two hours to find Roberto Aguilar guilty of capital murder on April 10, 2017. Because the state did not seek the death penalty, he automatically received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Aguilar was the first of the several co-defendants to be tried. The final legal outcomes for the other men charged in connection with the crime are not publicly clear. The case, as of April 2017, was closed with the conviction of the primary perpetrator.