Inset: Jonathan Ross Mata (Houston Police Department). Background: A man identified as Mata firing a gun at a fleeing car in a gas station parking lot in Houston, Tex. (Houston Police Department).
A Texas man was recently arrested for shooting and killing someone he mistakenly thought had kidnapped his 19-year-old daughter, law enforcement officials in the Lone Star State say.
Jonathan Ross Mata, 39, stands accused of one count of murder, according to the Houston Police Department.
The shooting took the life of 25-year-old Desmond Butler. The underlying incident occurred along a feeder road to a highway in Houston during the early morning hours on Christmas Day.
At half past midnight, the defendant and his wife received a phone call from their teenage daughter saying she had been attacked by her boyfriend, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime.
During that phone call, Mata's daughter asked her parents to pick her up "from her cousin's apartment," police said. In the intervening half hour or so, however, Mata and his wife came to believe they would be picking her up from a Shell gas station on Bellaire Boulevard where she would be "dropped off by her boyfriend," the complaint says.
"Defendant stated that a vehicle pulled into the gas station, occupied by a black male driver who looked just like [his daughter's] boyfriend and a female passenger," the charging document reads. "Defendant stated that he thought his daughter was in the vehicle which was driven by [Butler] and that as the vehicle drove past them, his wife got out and began chasing it on foot."
Surveillance footage of the initial confrontation, ensuing chase, and shooting was obtained by Houston-based CBS affiliate KHOU.
Around 1:05 a.m., the victim is seen driving his gray Honda Pilot into the filling station parking lot, passing by the defendant's black GMC Acadia, which was parked at one of the pumps.
As Butler's vehicle passes through the parking lot, a woman is seen exiting the GMC, chasing after the Honda, and reaching for the back passenger door as the Honda exits the parking lot and turns onto the access road that leads to Beltway 8, an 88-mile loop that surrounds the city that is also known as Sam Houston Parkway.
Then the footage shifts back to GMC, where a man is seen walking toward the fleeing Honda, pulling out his gun, and firing shots which flash in the dark — all with his cellphone out — followed by a much larger flash coming from the direction where the bullet was fired.
"The victim attempted to drive north on the West Sam Houston Parkway feeder road when he was struck by gunfire and crashed his vehicle into a pole in an adjacent parking lot," the police department wrote in a press release issued after Mata was arrested. "The suspects got back into their vehicle and drove northbound on the feeder road."
The complaint offers the following summary of the incident:
As the Hispanic female is chasing [Butler's] vehicle, a Hispanic male driver gets out of the GMC Acadia with a pistol and is also seen talking on a cell phone. As [Butler] drives north on the feeder road, the Hispanic male fires two rounds at [Butler's] vehicle and strikes him two times in the back of his head and back. [Butler] crashes his vehicle into a light pole in an adjacent parking lot.
After the shooting, Mata and his wife drove over to the site of the crash and pulled open the door of the Honda, according to Butler's passenger, who later called 911, authorities say.
"[The defendant] looked inside the vehicle and said something to the effect of 'Oh we were looking for our kidnapped daughter, I'm sorry, we will call 911' and then drove away," the complaint reads.
On Jan. 12, Mata and his wife arrived at the police department's headquarters, with an attorney in tow, to explain the kidnapping misapprehension, according to the charging document.
"Defendant said that the vehicle left the parking lot, and he fired two rounds from his firearm at the vehicle trying to get it stopped and then saw that it crashed in an adjacent parking lot," the complaint continues. "Defendant and his wife pulled up to the crashed vehicle and opened the door to see if their daughter was inside, but she was not, and they returned home. Defendant said that he did not realize that he had shot Butler and did not call 911 because he was scared."
On Jan. 14, Mata turned himself in.
The defendant quickly posted $50,000 bond, according to Harris County court records. He is next slated to appear in court on Feb. 25.
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