Confessions of a Killer: Salazar Contemplates the Next 99 Years

 

“There’s a time in all of our lives where we come to the end of ourselves. That’s what this is,” Matthew Salazar said with a broad smile. In his right hand, he holds a phone tethered to an electronic screen the jail uses for video visitation. A small cell is visible in the background, where he stands clad in an orange jumpsuit.

Despite having been sentenced to “death by prison” only two days prior, Salazar appears alert, clear-headed and curiously optimistic. He seems to have come to terms with his punishment and to have accepted the jury’s decision as “God’s will”.

“My life’s over. I’m going to prison… I’m going to bring Jesus to everyone I can,” he said. “When you’re actually at a point of hopelessness, when all you have is God…[you have to remember] what Jesus had done for us; taken his life on the cross.”

For the next 30-99 years, he said, Salazar plans to be a missionary, “falling into the arms of God” to steer his life behind bars. His faith, he stated, is all he has left, and without it he likely would have taken his own life before his case ever made it to trial.

Implicating the emotional turmoil and realization of his sins, Salazar offered the following quote from A.W. Tozer as a summation of how far he's come:

No man has truly repented until his sin has wounded him near to death, until the wound has broken him and defeated him and taken all the fight and self-assurance out of him and he sees himself as the one who nailed his Saviour on the tree.

The quote, he said, very accurately describes how he's come to look at his acts over the past year as he awaited trial.

Although the District Attorney had offered him a plea bargain with a term set at 50 years, Salazar said it was important for him to go to trial in order to right some of the wrongs he committed against the family of Heather Felts Salazar on Aug. 31, 2013. That is  when he pulled the trigger and ended her life, branding himself a murderer for the rest of his.

“I took it to trial because her family wouldn’t have gotten any closure [from a plea bargain],” he said Saturday. “I wasn’t expecting 99 years, but how do you put a number on someone’s life?”

Salazar confessed to the murder of his wife immediately after the incident, calling first 911, then friends to alert them of what he’d done. Once taken into custody, he waived his rights and issued a written confession to the Texas Rangers and the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Office. Since then, he has spent nearly a year in jail awaiting trial.

Many things have gone through his head since he was first booked into the jail, he said. Most of all, however, he’s been trying to understand how he got to the point mentally that murder seemed like an option.

“Given my background and [how I was raised], I’ve been in here a year contemplating how a person like me could take another person’s life,” Salazar said, visibly still struggling to find an answer.

During his trial, witnesses mentioned that Salazar was raised in a family of missionaries, and at various points in his adult life was very actively involved in the church. Now, he said, his faith is all he has left.

“When you watch your wife die in your arms from a gunshot wound that you inflicted, that changes you,” he said, alluding to the hopelessness he’s felt since the incident. “…When we’re chasing the love of a human that only God is supposed to feel, things get messed up.”

Salazar said that he’s replayed the events of the day of the shooting in his mind repeatedly since he’s been in jail, but still does not have an answer for why he brought a gun into Bradley Floyd’s house that afternoon.  

“Between walking out of the truck and walking through the door is a blur,” he said, recalling the day of the incident. He says that he can recall with clarity spotting his wife’s purse and seeing his wife's lover, Floyd, walk naked down the hall with an erection. At that moment, he said, he felt shocked, betrayed and in disbelief, as he moved forward with the gun in his hand and fired on his wife and her lover.

What exactly he was thinking as he pulled the trigger, Salazar could not explain, but described the action as occurring at the command of a mind not his own.

“My mind wasn’t behind the finger that pulled the trigger,” he repeated over the telephone. A similar statement appeared in his written confession given while in custody, “If I understand the definition of temporary insanity, this right here was it”.

On Aug. 21, the jury in Salazar’s trial heard evidence in the punishment phase, a large portion of which was meant to either prove or disprove whether he had acted in sudden passion. When sent to deliberate, the jury was given instructions, including the punishment ranges for first-degree murder (5-99 years) and the range for murder with sudden passion (2-20 years).

Salazar believes that if the jury had not been aware of how sudden passion would limit the range of punishment they could assess, they would have returned a verdict that included sudden passion.

He does plan to appeal the case, he said, adding, “I’m going to pursue all my legal rights”, however he still has a pending indictment for the attempted murder of Bradley Floyd. Up until now, Salazar has not received word on how the district attorney plans to proceed with the case, and stated he has no comment on how he will move forward as he is not yet familiar enough with the legal aspects. 

While in prison, he plans to “take full advantage of whatever the TDCJ will offer me, but ultimately it’s [what God wants],” he said. His mother, father, ex-wife and her husband, as well as a few friends that testified on his behalf have become a strong support system, he said, but expressed deep sorrow as to how his actions have affected both his own two children, as well as Heather’s.

“It’s a tragic situation,” he said. “There are a lot of people suffering here, but the kids are going to suffer the greatest.

Salazar plans to keep in touch with his children, and would like to keep in touch with Heather’s sons, but admitted that contact with the two boys is unrealistic, unless their guardians allow them to visit. 

“I guess they can look me up one day when I get out,” he said.

Following the sentencing on Aug. 21, Heather’s mother said she had been able to forgive Salazar, noting a specific moment in court when their eyes met and he nodded in acceptance of his fate.

“I felt a relief myself when we made eye contact,” he said. “I wanted to apologize to everyone involved, specifically Arnold, her dad. He was a friend of mine before I even met Heather…I want everyone to know that Heather was a great mother, a great wife and a great business partner…I forgive Bradley, even though that’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.”

The Grape Creek Murder Trial, as it unfolded in the Tom Green County Courthouse in August 2014:

 

 

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jdgt, Mon, 08/25/2014 - 08:57
Spoken like a true, Christian hypocrite. (there's a huge population of those around here, I've seen.) Sorry Matt.... not buying your bible thumping BS. This wound is still fresh in too many hearts. Her mother might have forgiven you - but this thing you did... You can't compare it to running over the family dog... This was a HUMAN life that you took it upon yourself to END. (FINISH... FINALE... NADA... ZIP... BYE BYE.... SILENCE) Personally, it leaves a sour feeling in my gut to know that you think you've found the comfort of faith to see you through. I'd rather hoped you'd curl up in your cell and just whither away with guilt.
Makes me sick that those of us who are Christians gets lumped in with scum like this. Hypocrit is too nice of a word, gonna try the appeal process & to claim all holy now will make you look better right, seen the error of my way, etc etc. So where was this great holiness when YOU were cheating through all of your relationships? At least be real, you are trying to save your worthless butt now & you think riding the coat tail of religion will do it. Makes me sick. My brother was murdered by someone like you who wanted to play the I'm a better person now card. Every year I've sent letters fighting parole but this year at only year 22- the animal was let out so I fear you will also get out someday far too soon. You might want to ask God for forgiveness, but please spare us the "i've seen the light and want to help others" crap.
When I worked with Matt Salazar he once told me and I quote " Church is for the weak minded and the desperate." I guess now he falls into the desperate category. This is all a ploy and I will not feel any pity for a man who murders in cold blood. The best thing I could tell Matt is stop talking and do your time. Your "god" can not save you now.
So Matt went to trial to allow Heather's family closure but yet he is going to appeal the verdict? I, too, get tired of hypocrites using Christianity to explain away thier immorality. For those of us who truly are believers, claims like these of Salazar is what paints all of us as hypocrites. I don't know what will become of Matt Salazar, but I do know the comments he made in this article do not show an ounce of sincere remorse or emotional improvement.
I am not justifying Matt's behavior and saying it is ok now that he professes to have found Jesus. I'm not even saying that I believe that he has indeed truly surrendered his life to Christ...that's between him and God and not my call. What I will say is that we are all hypocrites...no matter how close we profess to be to Christ, no matter how much we consider ourselves to truly be believers, Matt's claims do not paint us as hypocrites. Our actions, words and thoughts do that for us. We are not perfect and we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. In judging Matt, you are painting yourself as a hypocrite, because you are judging him when it is not your place...you are claiming that his sin is worse than anything you have or will ever do, and that's just not true.
"In judging Matt, you are painting yourself as a hypocrite, because you are judging him when it is not your place...you are claiming that his sin is worse than anything you have or will ever do, and that's just not true." This is the most idiotic, pseudo-religious-rationalization statement I've read in quite a while. Congratulations.
I am not judging Matt, I'm only giving my opinion about contradictory statements he made which show he may not be sincere in what he is saying.
He says he didn't take the 50 year plea because he wanted his wife's family to have closure. He's now appealing that decision. He may recite scripture and call himself a missionary for the Lord, but his actions say something else.
Protestants and Catholics hold the top two spots of the "devout" behind bars (state and federal). With 218,000 federal prisoners in the nation, the numbers break down as follows: Protestants are 48% of the U.S. population, and 29% of federal prison population Catholics comprise 25% of the U.S. population, and 24% of federal prison population Atheists and nondenominational are 20% of the U.S. population, and 0.07% of federal prison population Most inmates own Bibles, sport tattoos with religious depictions, attend or lead fellowship services and of course reoffend, lending little weight to the argument that Judeo Christianity is the means to a morally inspired end.
bebop, Mon, 08/25/2014 - 17:05
maybe don't drag a gun around, and you won't shoot people in anger. Bye.
bebop, Mon, 08/25/2014 - 17:07
Yes, he had contempt for god and religion, until he was in jail, where there are no atheists. Jailhouse conversion so they can show how "saved" they are. He thinks he's getting out. He's not. Ha. You're a pig with a gun. You don't commit a worse crime over one you don't approve of. Again -- Bye, Matt.
bebop, Mon, 08/25/2014 - 17:10
Evil, evil face, with shark eyes. Good riddance. HOpe the other charges keep him in prison until long past death. The evil among us, trying to disappear into groups of normal people, are best put away when found out.
"In judging Matt, you are painting yourself as a hypocrite, because you are judging him when it is not your place...you are claiming that his sin is worse than anything you have or will ever do, and that's just not true." No sin I have ever committed or will commit compares to the murder of a human being. Your saying otherwise is stupid.
Matt thinks that he is smarter than everyone so that he can tell them what they want to hear and it will help him get out sooner but it is all a ploy. If anyone here is that stupid I pity you because I know this man and he is a real piece of work. He is right where he belongs...in jail for a long time....Thank God
jdgt, Mon, 08/25/2014 - 20:54
Really, I'm kind of offended that SAL would even give him a whole article to air his grievances. He didn't deserve that.
Lol! They say Atheist have no morals. I don't need a god to tell me the difference between right and wrong.
A common theme among many devout is the absolution of personal responsibility. Every popular, cliche religious sentiment is saturated with the capricious and convenient "out of my hands" philosophy -- a hallmark of those too lazy or too stupid to think and act on their own behalf. As if their insistence on others entertaining their fatuous theories on the "forces of Evil" or "Satan's influence" were not insulting enough, otherwise rational individuals often find themselves being browbeaten into becoming unwilling participants of the fanatic's conjectural nonsense like "only GOD can judge" and "It's in GOD'S hands now". We're left with the supposition that invisible forces compel otherwise inculpable people to do horrible deeds which (of course) we have no right to scrutinize or subjectively assess or interpret. Like the prepackaged bundles of commandments to serve as holy how-to manuals and our omniscient, supernatural babysitters, so too are we subordinated and infantilized before a doctrine of unaccountability. The reduction of one's life to happenstance and the caprices and adjudication of supernatural puppet masters is not only demeaning, but indicative of an inherently defective being.
bebop, Tue, 08/26/2014 - 02:22
that was the final insult from this murdering jerk. no wonder his wife sought comfort elsewhere. Wait, this Salazar has been married THREE TIMES, at his age? Wow.
Unfortunately, his "erection" images will soon enough no longer just be in his head.

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