Nine Felonies in Four Days: San Angelo Youth Pleas to Crime Spree

The files read like fiction: Three kids—one a teen, the other two 20-somethings—charged and indicted on a litany of felonies stemming from a four-day crime spree in a town of 100,000 that involves theft, guns and a recurring red Chevy truck.

Played out over the days and nights of March 23 through March 27, 2014, a chain of related incidents, with links to a prior double-homicide and a stolen debit card, has cost at least two San Angelo kids their freedom, one of which is awaiting transfer to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Daniel Diaz and Gaspar Callaway Salasar have been in jail since March 27. On Oct. 22, Diaz became the first of the defendants to plea in the case, at which time he also amitted his guilt in the use of a stolen debit card two months prior. Also charged with debit card abuse was Idalia Limon, who spent two days in jail April for the offense. She was not involved in the terrorizing case that led to nine felony charges between Diaz and Salasar.

The Debit Card

According to a complaint filed by SAPD Detective Rodney Black, on Jan. 21, a resident of Wellington Apartments reported his wallet and Citibank debit card missing from his vehicle.

The bank had told the victim that his card had been used at several locations in San Angelo without his permission, including a $62.94 charge at Pinkie’s on Bryant and a $22.36 charges at Lowe’s grocery on Bryant.

Police obtained surveillance footage from those locations, which showed a Hispanic male and two Hispanic females together inside the grocery store. One of the females used the card to make the purchase at Lowe’s while the other two stood by, and the trio then exited the store and got into a late-model red Camaro on Jan. 20 at approximately 8:47 p.m.

At approximately 8:54 p.m., just a few minutes after the Lowe’s purchase, Diaz was caught on tape at Pinkie’s using the card to make purchases.

The plot thickened when Detective Black learned of a runaway report that had been filed on Jan. 24 involving 19-year-old Idalia Limon and her juvenile sister. The report revealed that the sisters had been in a red Camaro and were possibly at the San Angelo Lodge.

San Angelo police officer Lee Kvittem located Limon and her sister at the Lodge on Jan. 25 in room 241, and on Feb. 7, Detective Black obtained the records from the motel, which showed that Diaz had rented the room. Black compared Diaz’s previous police booking photos to the surveillance footage and determined that Diaz was the same person who had used the stolen debit card.

Diaz was charged with debit card abuse for the incident, a state jail felony that was enhanced to a third-degree due to his prior convictions.

Limon was also charged and indicted for debit card abuse and was scheduled to stand trial on Nov. 17, however that has since been vacated. Aside from a prior marijuana possession charge, which has yet to reach judgment, she has no prior criminal history.

Limon’s name, however, does appear on other court documents. On Sept. 1, 2013, she was a witness to the brutal murder of her then boyfriend, 22-year-old Alvaro Carrillo, and the murder of Tabitha Freeman, also 22.

The Gun

A few months after the debit card abuse, Diaz again caught police attention when he allegedly stole a gun that was later reported on March 26, a state jail felony enhanced to a third-degree felony.

The codefendant listed on Diaz’s indictment is 23-year-old Gaspar Salasar, who court records reveal was charged with theft of a firearm on the same date, as well as aggravated robbery, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, burglary of a habitation and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon; offenses that occurred over a span of four days from March 23-26.

Due to prior 2011 convictions for car theft and unauthorized absence from a community correctional facility, Diaz is not permitted to own or possess firearms.

On March 27, San Angelo patrol officers E. Tabone and T. McGee received information to attempt to locate a red Chevy pickup with temporary plates that was possibly involved in both a recent aggravated robbery and a recent aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

While out on patrol, officer A. Castro noticed a vehicle matching the description at the intersection of 23rd and N. Chadbourne. When the driver of the vehicle failed to signal to turn, McGee pulled the driver over and identified him as Daniel Anthony Diaz.

Diaz didn’t have a valid license at the time and was arrested for the offense. During the stop, officer A. Aguilar showed up to assist, and began to inventory the truck when he found a .380 caliber Kel-Tec handgun.

Diaz told McGee he was carrying the gun because he had been having trouble with a subject and had recently fired the weapon at a shooting range. The gun had been in his truck for weeks, he admitted in a recorded interview with Detective K.L. Dye II.

Diaz and Salasar were charged with theft of a firearm, a state jail felony enhanced to a third-degree felony in both cases. They were also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, a third-degree felony.

Cops and Robbers

While Diaz was in custody on March 27, Detective Dye questioned him on an aggravated robbery that had occurred three days prior.

On March 23, SAPD officer T. Burks was dispatched to the 1600 block of S. Chadbourne, where a man on a bicycle said he had been held at gunpoint and robbed by two Hispanic males in a red Chevy truck.

The victim told Burks that he had been riding his bicycle when the two men pulled up and flashed flashlights at him stating that they were undercover police officers and telling him to stop and pull over.

The driver then exited the vehicle and confronted the victim, he said, while the passenger “was calling for backup”. 

“At some point the passenger became agitated and pointed a handgun at him (the victim) and demanded his wallet,” Dye wrote in the complaint. The victim then threw his wallet into the truck and the subjects drove away.

Both the victim and a witness described the vehicle as a red Chevrolet truck with temporary tags.

In his interview, Diaz waived his Miranda Warnings and stated that he and Salasar had been driving around “the game room” on S. Chadbourne that day in his red Chevy.

Diaz said that Salasar began flashing a light at a male subject on a bicycle and that they pulled him over, at which point Salasar told the man they were police officers and pointed a gun at him.

The complaint does not mention whether Diaz said he was complicit in the crime other than pulling over, and his statement, as composed in the complaint, is limited Diaz’s testimony regarding Salasar.

Diaz and Salasar were both charged with aggravated robbery on March 27, a first-degree felony.

Gunfire

As the interview between Detective Dye and Diaz continued, talk turned to a March 26 shooting in the 1700 block of Greenwood, where once again a red Chevy truck had been sighted by the victim.

At approximately 4:50 a.m. that day, SAPD officer T. Lopez responded to meet with a male subject who had gone to start his vehicle when he spotted two Hispanic males who appeared to be burglarizing cars in a parking lot.

The victim told Lopez that he had spoken to the suspects and warned them that he was going to call the police. After retreating to his apartment to get his phone, the victim saw the suspects flee, and when he attempted to find them, saw one of the males standing next to a red truck.

Both males then climbed into the vehicle and drove at the victim, he told police, at which point they fired a single round in his direction. Lopez later found a single .380 caliber shell casing near where the victim stated the suspects had shot at him.

While in custody on March 27, Diaz told Detective Dye that he and Salasar were in the area and that Salasar was looking in a car. They tried to get away and Salasar shot a gun toward the subject.

Diaz said they were again in his red truck and that he had provided Salasar with the gun.

While statements regarding the interview with Diaz are included in complaints written by Detective Dye, there are no public records indicating that Salasar consented to an interview as well. His side of the story is not told in public files.

Both Diaz and Salasar were charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on March 27, a second-degree felony.

The Deal

Daniel Diaz, Gaspar Salasar and Idalia Limon were all indicted by a grand jury in September.

A little over a month later, on Oct. 22, Diaz pled to a deal that landed him in prison, but that also dropped several of his charges, in Judge Tom Gossett’s 391st District Court.

In a waiver and stipulation of evidence filed with the court, Diaz confessed to theft of a firearm, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated robbery, and burglary of a habitation. The burglary took place on March 25, and Diaz had not been indicted on the charge. These charges were all dismissed.

He pled guilty to debit card abuse enhanced to a third-degree felony and was sentenced to two years confinement. At the same hearing, Diaz also pled guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm, a third-degree felony, and was sentenced to 10 years confinement.

For the theft of the firearm, Diaz was ordered to jointly pay $2,655 in restitution with Gaspar Salasar. Diaz and Salasar were also ordered to pay $1,255 in restitution to the victim of the burglary.

Editor's note:

Some will read this story and start sharpening their verbal knives; others will call for execution on the courthouse lawn. The purpose of this article is not to bring shame on the families of those involved, nor to serve as a springboard for hate speech among the holy. 

This is a problem. Over the course of the past year, I've written stories about murder, rape, theft and incest, and some of things I've heard and read are almost surreal in their disgrace. Nothing, however, has been quite as harrowing as reading the files of these kids and seeing how in the space of months, days, minutes and seconds they've made decisions that have effectively ended their lives and the lives of others before they ever really began.

The intent behind this article is to start a conversation. It wasn't too long ago that many of these kids, now relegated to years behind bars, were attending local schools alongside some of your children. Some of you may have known them, others may have known of them, but I would bet there are very few in the outer circles that would have thought these teens and 20-somethings were capable of this kind of violence. I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that this is a community issue, not solely a family one.