Teen who allegedly took charge in shooting that killed mother of five is arrested

Although he claims he never fired a shot, a 19-year-old Forest Hill man is facing a murder charge for allegedly heading up a drive-by shooting last month that left a mother of five dead.

Jose Cruz Diaz, also known as “Joey Cruz” and “Chips”, was arrested Wednesday on a murder warrant. He remained Thursday in the Mansfield jail with bail set at $200,000.

Court documents indicate Diaz and a second teen arrested in the case — 19-year-old Nathan Leal — had gone to a home in the 2700 block of Burchill Road early Sept. 9 because they were upset that a resident of the home had earlier shot at a group at a nearby park.

Investigators believe Diaz, a passenger in the front of the truck, directed the driver to the home on Burchill Road, told him where to park and instructed him to turn off his headlights. They suspect he also told Leal to get out of the truck and open fire on the house.

The man with whom they were angry was not at home. Instead, the man’s girlfriend, 22-year-old Victoria Deleon, was sleeping with her five children — the youngest on her chest — inside the bedroom struck by the bullets.

Deleon, who was hit by the gunfire, carried her baby to relatives in the living room, collapsed and later died at the hospital, police have said.

“Jose Cruz Diaz is responsible for the murder of Victoria Deleon due to the fact that he gave specific instructions to (the driver) about how to get to the location, where to park and what to do once he was parked at the location,” homicide Detective E. Pate wrote in an arrest warrant affidavit. “Jose also told Nathan Leal that he wanted him to shoot the house … .”

Leal was arrested last week in Sacramento, Calif., where he had moved in the weeks after the shooting. Police say he has confessed but insists he only meant to shoot up the house, not kill anyone inside.

When initially interviewed by Pate and homicide Detective Jerry Cedillo on Sept. 13, Diaz denied involvement.

He claimed that he was at home and at his girlfriend’s house all that weekend except when he picked up his girlfriend at her workplace in north Fort Worth, according to the affidavit.

Other witnesses interviewed by detectives, however, disputed his story.

Diaz was interviewed again Oct. 2. This time, according to the affidavit, Diaz acknowledged that he had been at Polytechnic High School prior to the shooting, trying to talk his brothers into leaving with him.

“Jose heard his brothers were trying to fight (Deleon’s boyfriend) and he knew that (the boyfriend) would shoot at them,” Pate wrote in an affidavit.

Diaz told investigators that he did not go with his brothers to the park east of Vaughn Boulevard where they had planned to meet with Deleon’s boyfriend to fight. He said he picked up his girlfriend at her workplace but was called by his brothers, who informed him that someone had shot at them at the park.

Deleon’s boyfriend has admitted to investigators that he fired at the group of people at the park after driving by and seeing there were too many to fight. The boyfriend said he had been arguing with the Diaz brothers because they were trying to fight a friend of his.

After the park shooting, Diaz told police that he met up with his brothers at his girlfriend’s house. He said they were soon met by Leal, a friend who was also “very agitated” upon hearing about the park shooting.

Diaz said that he, one of his brothers and Leal then asked another man to drive them to the Burchill home. Once there, Diaz told investigators, only Leal got out of the truck and shot at the house.

After his arrest, Leal told investigators that Diaz had told him on the way to the Burchill home that he wanted him to get out of the truck and shoot the house.

This story was originally published October 19, 2017 at 11:47 AM with the headline "Teen who allegedly took charge in shooting that killed mother of five is arrested."