HOUSTON, TEXAS: A Texas woman in her early 20s will spend the next several years in prison for beguiling a man only to be ambushed and murdered by a brutal MS-13 gang later in which he was clubbed to death before being fatally shot.
According to court records, Karla Jackelin Morales was ordered to serve a sentence of three decades by Harris County District Court Judge Nikita V Harmon on Friday, August 11, in a state correctional facility in connection with the horrific 2018 murder of 24-year-old Jose Alfonso Villanueva.
Who is Karla Jackelin Morales?
Morales pleaded guilty to one count of murder before she was sentenced. The 21-year-old woman was the last of six people arrested and charged with the vicious attack on Villanueva when she was taken into custody in 2021. Morales posted $60,000 bond and was released from detention following her arrest.
But on October 20, 2021, a couple of days after Francisco “Psycho” Amadeo Flores-Salazar, who was one of five MS-13 members to take part in the attack and was sentenced to 45 years in prison for the crime, cut off her ankle monitor and went on the run.
“This defendant jumped bail in 2021 to escape the consequences of her actions, but she was re-arrested and, on the eve of trial this week, pleaded guilty for what she did,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a news release. “This was a premeditated and planned out attack, and we have now been able to get justice for the victim’s family".
She was located and arrested after nine months in Houston, Texas.
How did Karla Jackelin Morales lure the victim Jose Alfonso Villanueva?
Morales lured Villanueva to a field near Lewis Elementary School in the community of Spring, Texas, on the evening of July 29, 2018. She told him that they would be smoking marijuana as a belated birthday present for the victim.
However, when they arrived, he was violently ambushed by five gang members who had been lying in wait. Prosecutor said that the victim became their primary target because he bad-mouthed the criminal organization in a rap song.
Morales claimed that she told to the gang members that she wanted no part in the attack anymore, but they told her it was too late. Flores-Salazar told authorities he slashed and hacked the 24-year-old victim at least twice before other men shot and killed him. He also told authorities that Villanueva belonged to a rival gang.
What did the authorities say?
“This woman knowingly lured an innocent man to be murdered by five MS-13 gang members in the most brutal and depraved manner you could imagine sending shockwaves and fear throughout the Houston community,” Robert Kurtz, the Acting Special Agent in Charge with Homeland Security Investigations in Houston said in a statement following the sentencing hearing.
According to NBC affiliate KPRC-TV, the special agent added, "By working in conjunction with our local law enforcement partners and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, we were able to hold all of the individuals responsible for this horrifying tragedy accountable and hopefully bring some closure to the victim’s family.”
