Fort Worth man gets 75 years in prison for fatally shooting ex-girlfriend’s husband
A jury decided that he killed once in 1991 and sentenced Gabriel Delgado to 15 years in prison.
On Thursday, a Tarrant County jury again sentenced Delgado to prison after finding him guilty of a second 2018 murder.
This time, labeled a habitual offender, he got 75 years.
Delgado was first convicted in the fatal shooting of Jose Rios in October 1991 in Fort Worth.
Delgado, who was also known as DelGato, was next accused in the April 1, 2018, slaying of Baltazar Gomez, 28, who was pronounced dead in his home in the 4100 block of Avenue L in Fort Worth.
“There was no justification for the senseless violence by this defendant,” said Tracey Kapsidelis, a Tarrant County prosecutor, on Friday. “While Balthazar Gomez’s family was preparing for a funeral, this defendant was at large for 11 days before finally being brought into custody. The jury held him accountable for his actions, and the court’s sentence was appropriate for this habitual criminal.”
Delgado, 46, was arrested at a house in Nageezi, New Mexico, a Native American reservation.. New Mexico State Police officers in Farmington said they assisted a U.S. Marshals Service task force with the apprehension.
In July 2018, the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office offered Delgado a 50-year prison sentence, but he decided to take the case to trial, according to court records.
Victim was his ex-girlfriend’s husband
Police said when they arrived at the home on Avenue L, Gomez was lying in the hallway with a gunshot wound to his chest, according to court records. A woman who said Delgado was her ex-boyfriend identified Delgado as the person who had shot and killed Gomez, her husband.
The woman said Delgado sent Gomez text messages the night before and the day of the shooting saying he wanted to fight. When Gomez tried to leave their home the night of the shooting to go to the store, Delgado pulled up in his father’s car, got out, and walked toward the house.
Gomez got out of his car and told Delgado to leave moments before Delgado fired two to three shots. Gomez walked back inside the house and collapsed on the floor, court records said.
Delgado had asked the court to lower the amount of his $500,000 bail, but appellate jurists sided with the trial judge, who maintained that the bail amount was not excessive, according to court records.
During an evidentiary hearing on bail, a friend of Delgado’s, Tammie Gonzales, testified that he has two children, was a great father, and “has Jesus Christ in his heart.”
Delgado had worked in Tarrant County at a job involving machinery for three or four years, made around $2,000 to $2,500 per month and gave his children’s mother $100 to $200 per week, according to Gonzales’ testimony.
Delgado’s sister, a Farmington, New Mexico resident, said that before he was arrested, Delgado planned to surrender to authorities.
