A Brownsville teen got 35 years in prison. He killed a man outside a barber shop in 2024. He was just 16 on the night of the shooting.
DA Luis V. Saenz gave the news Monday on Facebook. The teen is Donovan Yandel Martinez Tirado. He is now 17. He pled guilty to killing 22 year old Angel Bibiano Montoya. A judge gave him 35 years after he admitted his part in it.
This case shows how far Texas courts will go. Young offenders can face real time in deadly crimes. It closes one part of a case that began with a bad gun sale. Two other men also face long prison time for this same killing.
A second man, Luis Manuel Hernandez, also pled guilty. He was 16 when the murder took place. He is now 19. Hernandez took a deal on May 11. It was for a lesser murder charge. A judge gave him 25 years.
A third man, Jose Luis Ibarra, pled guilty to murder on Jan 28. He was 18 at the time of the shooting. He is now 21. Ibarra faces up to 40 years. That is the longest term of the three. His sentencing is set for next week.
Police say the shooting took place on June 1, 2024. It was at a barber shop in the 2500 block of East University in Brownsville. Cops got there at 6:27 p.m. They found Montoya shot.
Brownsville cop spokeswoman Abril Luna spoke about the scene in a Facebook video. She said Montoya had met two other people in a lot near the shop. He wanted to sell them a gun. During that meeting, someone shot him.
Montoya ran back inside the shop. He fell to the floor. The suspects fled in a red truck. Medics rushed Montoya to a hospital. He died from his wounds.
Cops tried to stop the truck, but the driver did not pull over. Officers kept looking. They found the truck later on the 800 block of East Taylor. All three suspects got caught there.
Two of the three men were just 16 when this happened. Texas courts can charge teens as adults for crimes like murder. Both Tirado and Hernandez took plea deals. They did not go to trial. Their terms show being young does not always mean a light punishment when someone dies.
This case took more than two years to get here. The shooting was in June 2024. Ibarra pled guilty first, back in January. Hernandez pled guilty in May. Now Tirado has his sentence too. Each man faced the same charge. Each got a different term. That came down to the deal each one struck with the DA.
Ibarra is the last of the three still waiting. He pled guilty in January. He faces up to 40 years, more than the other two got. His hearing is set for next week. It is not yet clear if he will get the full 40 years.
For now, two of the men are already locked up for decades. The third will learn his fate soon. The case closes a chapter that began with a gun sale gone wrong. It leaves a family grieving a 22 year old man who never made it home that night.
