Inset (from left to right): Elian Araujo, Hugo Carlin, and Misael Jiminez (McLennan County Sheriff's Office). Background: The intersection of Franklin Ave & South 5th Street in Waco, Texas, where the men were arrested (Google Maps).
A Texas man is accused of seeking to kill the mother of his child's new boyfriend and enlisting the help of his friends because he needed a ride to confront the man.
Hugo Carlin, 19, is charged with soliciting someone to commit murder, McLennan County jail records show. He was booked into the McLennan County Jail on Wednesday and is being held on $250,000 bail.
According to authorities, Carlin had a "desire to commit murder," but he had a problem: He needed a way of reaching his intended target.
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"I need gas money bro," the suspect said in a text to 22-year-old Elian Araujo, according to an arrest affidavit reviewed by local CBS affiliate KWTX.
"I'm not playing," another message read, along with the threat that the defendant was going to "smoke" the victim.
On Sept. 15, Araujo picked Carlin up in his vehicle, along with three other people, police say. One of them, 21-year-old Misael Jiminez, was also in the vehicle, according to law enforcement. As the vehicle moved through Waco, a police officer pulled it over near the intersection of Franklin Avenue and South 5th Street due to an alleged traffic violation.
When the officer peered inside, he saw five firearms between three people in the backseat. One minor had two guns tucked into his waistband, the affidavit says. Carlin himself had a semiautomatic rifle with "an extremely high capacity of very deadly ammunition," according to the charging document.
Additional law enforcement officers arrived to help arrest the suspects, with one of them reportedly telling investigators Carlin "had been talking about going to confront his child's mother's new boyfriend."
Court records show that Araujo and Jiminez have both been charged with criminal conspiracy to commit aggravated assault. They are also being held on $250,000 bail.
Police alleged in the affidavit that the text thread between Carlin and Araujo "supports the story given by parties at the time of the traffic stop that Hugo Carlin was looking for a ride or gas money, and that [Araujo] then picked up Carlin and [the others] to assist [Carlin] in the commission of the criminal offense of murder and/or aggravated assault."
One of the men in the vehicle was not charged after cooperating with law enforcement, the local TV station reported.
