A Houston-area father has been charged with murder for the shooting death of drunk driver who killed his two children in a Dec. 7 accident.
The man, 31-year-old David Barajas, and his sons David Jr. and Caleb, were pushing the family truck down a rural road near Alvin after the vehicle ran out of gas. Just as they approached their driveway, a car plowed into the Barajas and killed the two boys, aged 12 and 11 respectively.
The driver was dead behind the wheel with a gunshot wound to the head.
The mother, Cindy Barajas, was sitting inside the truck with the couple's 8-year-old daughter and 3-month-old son during the accident.
Witnesses near the crime scene recalled hearing gunshots moments after the crash. Jose Banda — the 20-year-old driver of the car, who was suspected to be intoxicated — was dead behind the wheel with a gunshot wound to the head. Investigators ruled his death a homicide, but were unable to find a murder weapon at the scene.
While incident remained draped in mystery for much of December, Barajas family reached out to KHOU Ch. 11 with claims of being threatened on Facebook. The couple temporarily relocated amidst online accusations that Cindy has been the shooter.
After several months of investigative work, authorities indicted David Barajas for murder late last week. He turned himself in two days later and remains in jail on a $450,000 bond.
Dominick Sanders, an investigator with the Brazoria County Sheriff's Department, tells the Associated Press that witnesses reported seeing Barajas walk into his home after the crash and return to Banda's car a few minutes later. Authorities have yet to locate a murder weapon, but a search of the Barajas home uncovered bullets that match the one used to kill the driver.
Sanders said that the Sheriff's Office was awaiting results from two tests — one of gunshot residue on Barajas and Banda and another of "biological material" found at the crime scene.
