Oct 6, 2009 1:48 pm US/Central
Arrest In Cold Case Murder Of Aspiring Boxer
Detectives Say Gunman Mistook Victim For Rival Gang Member
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Alejandro Alex Calderon was gunned down on his family porch on July 29, 2007. Police have arrested a reputed gang member from Honduras and say the gunman mistook Calderon for a rival gang member.
Courtesy Calderon Family
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Josue Mata, 19, has been charged with first-degree murder and ordered held without bail in the July 29, 2007 shooting death of aspiring boxer Alejandro "Alex" Calderon on Chicago's Southwest Side.
CBS
A man from Honduras has been arrested for killing a promising young boxer in Chicago two years ago. Chicago police said Josue Mata, 19, was recently arrested in Texas and brought back to Chicago, where he was charged with first-degree murder.
Mata is accused of shooting Alejandro "Alex" Calderon, a national Silver Gloves boxing champion, while he sat on his family's porch on the Southwest Side on July 29, 2007. Cold Case Detective Oscar Arteaga said Mata mistakenly thought Calderon, 19, was a rival gang member.
Mata was being held without bail and was due in court later this month, according to police.
After returning from a family barbecue, Calderon, his brother and a friend were waiting for his sister's husband so they could head to the back yard together. An unknown number of people – who police said were reputed members of the Latin Kings street gang -- approached Calderon on the porch and asked him to "drop the fork," Calderon's sister Jessica Zadala said.
The gang-related talk wasn't welcomed by Calderon.
Calderon's sister said her brother told them "No, we don't want gang bangers around here."
A few minutes later the dark, older-model car circled back and two shots were fired.
"My little brother met me half way screaming 'They shot Alex, they shot Alex,'" Zavala said. "I thought he was shot in the leg, in the arm. But when I came my brother was laying out on the floor, with a gunshot in his head, blood all around here."
After his arrest in Texas, Mata admitted to police that he shot Calderon from a gangway across the street, Arteaga said. Mata is a reputed MS-13 gang member with ties to the Latin Kings in.
The Latin Kings and the Satan Disciples were in the midst of a gang feud at the time of the shooting, according to police. Mata, acting independently from the group of people that approached Calderon before the shooting, saw people hanging out on the porch and decided to shoot at them, Arteaga said.
Mata, whose last known address was in the 7100 block of South Homan Avenue, moved several times before he was deported to Honduras in February 2009. He later returned to the U.S. illegally and was arrested in Texas while on his way to California, according to Arteaga.
The cold case unit began investigating the case last year and, based on interviews with witnesses, focused on Mata. Arteaga said a friend of Mata, who was being held on drug charges, told detectives Mata had confessed to the shooting.
When Mata was arrested by federal authorities in Texas, his name popped up on a law enforcement database that notified Chicago police of the arrest, according to Arteaga.
Mata was scheduled to be deported again before Chicago detectives obtained an arrest warrant and went to Texas to bring him back to Chicago.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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