According to police, a Texas man killed his ex-girlfriend in retaliation for domestic violence charges she filed against him.
Damen Carrillo, 26, is charged with one count of murder in the first degree, according to Bexar County court records.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Ghabriella Barrera, 24, was shot and killed while driving home from work on San Antonio’s southwest side on Feb. 15.
The suspect in the shooting was wanted and mysterious as police searched for clues for months, but that changed this week with the ex-boyfriend’s arrest on Monday.
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The defendant allegedly threatened Barrera the night before her death, according to an affidavit obtained by San Antonio CBS affiliate KENS and ABC affiliate KSAT.
According to investigators, Carrillo threatened to kill the victim if she did not drop the family violence charges she had previously filed against him.
The earlier charges date back to November 15, 2024. On that day, the defendant was arrested for allegedly assaulting Barrera and later released on the condition that he maintain no contact with her.
Move forward several months to the alleged Valentine’s Day threats.
While police would discover the alleged court order violation far too late, investigators determined Carrillo texted various threats to Barrera the day before her death, according to the affidavit. Those repeated threats allegedly turned into repeat shots, with numerous bullet holes discovered in her driver’s side door, according to police.
The defendant also allegedly contacted the victim on the day of her death via Facebook Messenger to complain about a video she posted purporting to show Carrillo threatening Barrera with a gun.
“You working today, right?” the defendant allegedly asked in one message. “If the video don’t come down I’m pulling up.”
The victim was discovered after crashing near the railroad tracks between General Hudnell Drive South and Kirk Place. An autopsy revealed that Barrera died from multiple gunshot wounds.
“Nobody should have died that way,” the victim’s grandmother later told KSAT. “She was taken away for reasons we don’t even know.”
When asked to describe the slain woman to those who did not know her, her grandmother replied, “She was there to help as much as she could.”
A series of clues led to the defendant’s arrest.
According to investigators, Barrera’s coworkers reported seeing a suspicious black truck parked near the employee parking lot on the day she died. Then, surveillance footage would back up those claims, showing a black Ford F-150 parked near where the victim worked and then accelerating quickly as soon as Barrera left that day, according to the affidavit. A license plate reader later spotted the same truck driving; records revealed that the vehicle was registered to one of Carrillo’s family members, at the defendant’s home address.
The truck was later discovered and seized in the small town of Poteet, approximately 30 miles south of Alamo City. While conducting a search warrant, police allegedly discovered several 9 mm shell casings inside the F-150 that matched those found at the crime scene.
According to police, cellphone records showed Carrillo near the location where Barrera died around the time of the shooting.
On Tuesday, a Bexar County judge placed the defendant under full house arrest and prohibited him from possessing firearms.
