From Breitbart News Texas Aug 27, 2019:
A previously deported illegal alien has pleaded guilty to strangling and drowning his ten-year-old cousin in Cherokee County, TX after sexually assaulting her. He had been arrested TWICE before in Smith County for ASSAULT OF A FAMILY MEMBER.
Gustavo Zavala-Garcia, an illegal alien from Mexico living in Cherokee County, pleaded guilty on Aug. 22, 2019 to murdering his cousin Kayla Gomez-Orozco in 2016, after the 10-year old girl went missing, CBS Austin reports.
Kayla’s body was found Nov. 5, 2016 four days after her abduction, in a well on the property where Zavala-Garcia lived in the 22100 block of Farm-to-Market Road 2493 (Old Jacksonville Highway) in Bullard, TX. He had been living there and working in the area for 2 years after being deported on domestic violence abuse charges.
As reported in the region, Cherokee County, TX law enforcement assisted in the search for Kayla Gomez-Orozco and released multiple statements upon discovering her body. However after the indictment of Gustavo Zavala-Garcia and details of his immigration status and the sex assault were revealed, local media buried the story.
"We've caught this guy twice before."
The Cherokee County Sheriff's Department was placed front and center during the FBI search, then dropped after the sex assault and cause of death became public. Even though the abduction, Amber Alert, and homicide all occurred in Cherokee County, TX, the case was handled in neighboring Smith County. Why? Because Zavala-Garcia returned to his Cherokee County employer after his deportation orders even though he had been charged with multiple violent crimes 20 minutes away in Tyler, TX. He had a house, a job, and transportation waiting for him in Cherokee County, supplied by a local farmer everyone knows and everyone is related to. (Source: Jacksonville Progress)
A timeline was constructed based on witness accounts, evidence located at Zavala-Garcia's place and his cell phone records.
Investigators believe he took Gomez-Orozco in his vehicle as he left the church Nov. 1, and sometime between the time he arrived home and the time when his wife told law enforcement agents he entered their residence “is when (the) suspected party concealed the victim in the well,” the affidavit states.
Cell phone records also revealed that Zavala-Garcia contacted his employer by cell phone that evening, “requesting to borrow one of the business vehicles to assist with the search” for the girl after his wife told him she was missing from the church, the affidavit added.
Although the employer did not answer the call, he text messaged Zavala-Garcia the next morning, Nov. 2, “asking what was needed,” according to the affidavit, which added that his employer was not aware if a company vehicle was used.
However, footage from a local convenience store surveillance camera shows Zavala-Garcia and his wife on Nov. 1 at the gas pump in one of the company trucks and places them inside the store between 8:12 p.m. and 8:18 p.m., the affidavit noted. (Warrant Affidavit reaveals timeline of child's death, Nov 12, 2016 Jacksonville Progress)
The illegal alien's name was widely reported as his alias "Gustavo Gonzalez," the name he used working in Cherokee County, TX. His previous assault arrests and charges have been conveniently ignored. Cherokee County hires the cheapest ranch hands in East Texas, no questions asked.
Court records released after the murder reveal gruesome details where Zavala-Garcia kidnapped Gomez-Orozco from a church service and attempted to sexually assault her. According to Smith County prosecutors, the illegal alien struck the girl in the head with a blunt object, then strangled and drowned her. Gomez-Orozco’s body was found days later in a water well at the home where Zavala-Garcia had been living.
As Breitbart News reported in 2016, Zavala-Garcia crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally sometime after 2014, when he was first deported for violent crime charges, having been arrested TWICE for domestic abuse/ assault of a family member that year.
Gustavo Zavala-Garcia arrested in June 2014 for Assault Bodily Injury to a Family (Courtesy Smith County)
Gustavo Zavala-Garcia arrested in October 2014 for Assault Bodily Injury to a Family (Courtesy Smith County)
Zavala-Garcia will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder. (Courtesy Breitbart News and CBS 19)
