Ezekiel Diaz

Ezekiel Diaz, a 40-year-old Hispanic/Latino man, was a father of three who was remembered by his family for his love of playing guitar and his friendly nature. His mother recalled that he "always made friends along the way" and once stopped to help a woman who had dropped her newspapers at a busy intersection, giving her money to cover her losses. Born in Kansas on an Army base, Ezekiel moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, as a child. He experienced profound loss early in life when his fiancée died of a brain aneurysm before she could give birth to their daughter, who also passed away. Despite these struggles, he went on to have a son and a daughter.

On the evening of August 16, 2021, at that same intersection where he had once helped a stranger, Ezekiel Diaz was shot and killed. At around 7:30 p.m., he was in his black SUV near Lohman Avenue and Walnut Street when a gray Toyota pulled up alongside him. Surveillance footage showed that a shot was fired from the Toyota. Diaz got out of his SUV and collapsed on the roadway. Several bystanders rushed to his aid and attempted to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Investigators learned that Diaz had an ongoing feud with a man named Jimmy Levi Rogers, 29, reportedly because Diaz was jealous of Rogers' friendship with his girlfriend. The day after the shooting, police found Rogers' gray Toyota Corolla at a motel on West Picacho Avenue. Through interviews, surveillance video, and cell phone data, detectives placed Rogers and another man, 28-year-old Hector Victor Calderon, at the scene of the crime.

Police identified Calderon as the driver of the Toyota and Rogers as the shooter. On September 4, 2021, Calderon was arrested in Las Cruces. Rogers remained a fugitive until September 22, when he was apprehended in California by the U.S. Marshals Service and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. Both men were charged with an open count of murder, two counts of conspiracy, and one count of tampering with evidence.

In June 2023, Hector Victor Calderon accepted a plea deal that dismissed the murder charge against him; he was scheduled to testify for the prosecution at Rogers' trial. Two months later, in August 2023, a judge declared a mistrial in Jimmy Levi Rogers' murder trial due to juror misconduct. Prosecutors announced their intention to retry the case. As of August 2023, Rogers remained in custody awaiting a new trial.