Suspect bragged about killing 19-year-old U.S. Marine in Fort Worth: affidavit
In the weeks that followed the shooting death of a 19-year-old Marine in Fort Worth earlier this year, the suspect bragged about the killing to a tipster, according to police documents.
The suspect, 18-year-old Jayden Garcia, told the tipster he had unloaded two full magazines into the body of Lyndon Clay, police wrote in a arrest warrant affidavit.
Garcia was booked into the Tarrant County Jail on murder charges Tuesday evening.
Police were initially called to a parking lot of a warehouse in the 1200 block of Northwest 35th Street at around 3:40 a.m. on March 1.
The location was being used as an “after-hours venue” and up to 200 people were gathered inside the warehouse and parking lot in the lead-up to the shooting, detectives wrote.
All the shooting happened outside the warehouse, and a grassy area used as a parking lot was littered with spent shell casings in numerous sizes. Over 100 casings were recovered in 7.62, .223, 5.56, .40 and 9 millimeter sizes, according to the warrant.
Another person was shot, but survived their injuries.
Video surveillance from the area showed an altercation beginning inside the venue and spilling out into the parking lot, where the shooting took place, detectives wrote. Using this surveillance footage, police were able to identify Garcia and the vehicle he drove on the night of the killing.
On April 20, a Crimestoppers tipster told detectives that Garcia had been boasting about the killing, and that he lived in his grandmother’s house and still had the murder weapon, according to the affidavit. The tipster said he and Garcia were at the March 1 party and that some people stole jewelry belonging to Garcia.
Garcia went to his car, got the gun, and fired warning shots at the alleged thieves, the tipster told police. The others then returned fire with their guns.
A criminal history search on Garcia returned a 2023 criminally negligent homicide charge, according to the affidavit.
When detectives went to Garcia’s residence, Garcia pointed out his 9mm Glock handgun in the closet of his bedroom and told police it was the gun that killed Clay, police said.
The Fort Worth Police Department’s Firearms Laboratory compared the weapon to a metal-jacketed bullet collected at Clay’s autopsy, and found evidence that the bullet had been fired through Garcia’s pistol.
Garcia is being held in the Tarrant County Jail on a $500,000 bond.
