An undocumented immigrant from Mexico who had been deported three times from the US – and who is currently serving time for illegal re-entry into the country – has been charged with killing a business owner in Texas a decade ago.
Juan Eduardo Meraz-Flores, 30, is suspected of shooting to death Jose ‘Martin’ Munoz at his auto shop in Fort Worth on January 31, 2007, during an argument over a damaged tire rim.
Fort Worth police turned their attention to Meraz-Perez as a potential suspect in the decade-old unsolved murder case after receiving a tip last year, reported the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Cold case solved: Juan Eduardo Meraz-Flores (left), 30, was charged in November with murder in the January 31, 2007, killing of Jose ‘Martin’ Munoz (right) in Fort Worth, Texas
Crime scene: Police believe Meraz-Flores shot Munoz, who owned this auto body shop in Fort Worth, in the head during an argument over a tire rim
The 30-year-old illegal immigrant is currently serving a 30-month sentence in a medium-security federal prison in Beaumont for illegally crossing the border for the third time. He was expected to be deported again in February 2018.
According to police, forensic comparisons between Meraz-Flores and physical evidence gathered from the crime scene have produced a match, leading Tarrant County prosecutors to file a murder charge against the suspect on November 27.
By the time he had the fateful encounter with Martin Munoz, Meraz-Flores had already been deported once, but managed to re-enter the US sometime between 2005 and 2007.
On January 31, 2007, Meraz-Flores drove up to Munoz’s auto body shop on East Rosedale Street in a pickup truck and asked him to change out rims on two wheels.
But when the works was complete and it came time to pay, Meraz-Flores pointed ot that one of the new rims was damaged, leading to an argument between him and Munoz.
Police now believe that Meraz-Flores pulled a gun on Munoz and shot him in the head after the man threatened to call the police.
Munoz, himself an immigrant from Mexico, left behind a wife and three children.
For the next 10 years, police investigating the murder had little to go on beyond a few bits of information, including the fact that the suspected shooter’s first name was ‘Juan.’
A major break in the case came last year, when they got a tip from a man who furnished them with additional details about the gunman, which eventually led them to the already incarcerated Meraz-Flores.
Despite his young age, Meraz-Flores has a lengthy criminal record stretching back to at least 2004, when he shot one man and threatened two others with a gun to prove himself worthy of being in a street gang.
Munoz, pictured left with his family, left behind his wife and their three children
In April 2005, Meraz-Flores pleaded guilty to engaging in organized crime and was handed a sentence of nine months in state jail, followed by deportation back to Mexico.
But in June 2008 – less than a year and a half after Munoz’s killing – the convicted felon was re-arrested during a traffic stop in Fort Worth and charged with a federal count of re-entry after deportation.
Meraz-Flores pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison. Following his release in the fall of 2009, the undocumented alien was again ejected from the country.
In June 2011, Fort Worth police picked up Meraz-Flores, now using the alias Eduardo Flores, on charges of reckless driving, failure to identify and possession of marijuana.
Once again, he pleaded guilty to unlawful re-entry in 2012 and was handed another 16-month sentence, following by another deportation in February 2014.
Munoz (left) was killed less than two years after Meraz-Flores had been deported from the US for the first time, but then he slipped back in
Just four months after Meraz-Flores was kicked out of the country for a third time, he was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers for slipping into the country.
This time, Meraz-Flores was slapped with a 30-month prison term after entering a guilty plea to a charge of re-entry after deportation.
Viviana Munoz-Cardoso, Martin Munoz’s eldest daughter, told the paper she is feeling cautiously optimistic about the prospect of finally getting justice for her father, but she realizes there is still ‘a long way to go.’