Four Men Indicted for Downtown Shooting, North Side Murder

Three men involved in a downtown shooting and one charged with a north side murder have been indicted by a Tom Green County grand jury this month.

Allison Palmer is prosecuting the murder case against 46-year-old Stephano Miguel Culbreath, who is accused of running down 24-year-old David Titus with a red Suburban on July 25 and shooting him in the neck.

The complaint in the case against Culbreath suggests the alleged murder may be drug-fueled. Culbreath has been in jail since the morning of the incident, having caught SAPD Detective Adrian Castro’s attention as he circled the scene in the 200 block of W. 13^th St. in the early morning where the body was found.

Culbreath has also been indicted for possession of a controlled substance, due to drugs police located on his person when he was taken into custody. An enhancement paragraph has been added to the first-degree felony indictment—usually punishable by five to 99 years’ imprisonment—to raise the minimum sentence to 15 years.

Three additional men accused of a July 14 shooting downtown have been indicted on a second-degree felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge after firing 16 shots at Paul Garcia downtown.

According to the complaint filed with the case, 23-year-old Marc Anthony Asevedo and 23-year-old Robert Jimmy Blanco Jr. approached Garcia at five till 1 a.m. in the 200 block of S. Chadbourne on July 14, while Garcia was attempting to smoke a cigarette. He had been out celebrating his birthday.

One of the defendants then pushed a gun into his stomach while the other pushed a gun against his neck and ordered him to walk to the north, where the trio would get into a car, the complaint states.

Garcia walked with the pair until he came to the intersection of Chadbourne and Twohig. As one of the gunman pulled the pistol slightly away from his neck, Garcia spun away and began running eastbound in the unit block E. Twohig. The complaint states that as he ran, Asevedo and Blanco fired 16 shots, one of which hit him in the arm.

Garcia managed to flee to the parking garage of the Cactus Hotel, but he was quickly located by 26-year-old Anthony Andrew Baca, who pistol-whipped him repeatedly in the head until an “unknown female” yelled that they had “shot the wrong person,” the complaint states.

According to the complaint, Garcia was transported to Shannon by a private vehicle. He was allegedly followed by Blanco and Asevedo, who then attempted to prevent Garcia from entering the building until armed security arrived on scene. A witness who owns a Chadbourne business recognized Blanco’s name and the clothes he was wearing.

All three of the men have been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Both Baca and Blanco’s charges have been enhanced to first-degree felonies due to prior convictions. Asevedo stands charged with a second-degree felony, punishable by two to 20 years in prison and a fine not to exceed $10,000.