San Angelo Man Extradited to Taylor Co. in Cold Case Murder

SAN ANGELO, TX – An inmate in the Tom Green County Jail Thursday was sent to Taylor County after being charged with a murder in connection to a 2005 cold case.

According to court documents, on Aug. 17, 2023 at 2:58 p.m., Jose Morales Jr., 43, of San Angelo, was released from the Tom Green County Jail to the Abilene Police Department. Morales was in jail for a number of crimes including drug charges and evading arrest. He was originally booked on Apr. 27, 2023.

Since his arrest, Abilene Police were able to identify Morales as a suspect in a 2005 cold case. According to the APD in April of 2005, an altercation between Bobby Knox Beck and unknown Hispanic males led to Beck being stabbed multiple times outside a home in the 1900 Block of North 5^th Street. Beck died of his injuries.

The case went cold for several years. The Abilene Police Department Cold Case Detective revisited the case, and through new technology, DNA results came back as belonging to two suspects, Marco Ramos and Jose Angel Morales, from evidence recovered at the scene. Ramos was charged with First Degree Homicide in October 2022.

Morales is being held on a bond of $200,000. Ramos has since bonded out of jail.

The Department would like to thank the Department of Public Safety Crime Lab, the Tarrant County Medical Examiners Crime Lab, and the Taylor County District Attorney’s Office for assisting in both of the murder warrants on the two suspects.