McKinney homicide

Four people were gunned down in a house in McKinney,Texas on March 12, 2004. The incident received no-table national coverage on the July 22, 2006 episode ofAmerica’s Most Wanted, leading to the capture of a sus-pect.

1 Incident

On March 12, 2004, Eddie Williams, Javier Cortez, andRaul Cortez are accused of invading the home of RosaBarbosa expecting to get access to the check-cashingstore where Rosa worked. The gunmen followed Barbosahome from the check-cashing store and invaded her hometo try to gain access to the store. Mark Barbosa, RosaBarbosa’s nephew, was eating at CiCi’s pizza in McKin-ney with some of his friends, Austin York and Matt Self.While the gunmen were interrogating Rosa for informa-tion on how to rob the check-cashing store, Matt Self,Austin York, and Mark Barbosa were on their way tovisit the Barbosa home. Matt Self and Austin York werestudents at McKinney North High School and were play-ers on the varsity football team. York was with Self atthe time that Matt decided to do his routine check on hisneighbors, and was not at all expecting what he was aboutto witness. When the boys arrived at the Barbosa homethey were extremely surprised to find Rosa Barbosa be-ing held hostage in the house by three gunmen. The threegunmen were surprised when Self and York walked intothe house. The boys were said to have never been a tar-get to the gunmen, and that they were just in the wrongplace at the wrong time. As soon as the boys walked intothe house the Cortez brothers ambushed them and forcedthem into the front bedroom of the small house.Police reported that the four hostages were fatally shot on1600 block of Carrington Street, at Ms. Barbosa’s home.When the police came onto the scene in March 2004, allof the victims were pronounced dead on the scene exceptfor Matt Self. He was air-lifted by medical helicopters tothe Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, where hedied the following day.

2 Police response

Onemonth after the killings, police had believed that theyhad solved the case, but soon realized that the suspectswere not guilty, due to a lack of evidence and were re-

leased. It wasn’t until several years after the case thatthe authorities were led to Eddie Williams and the Cortezbrothers. McKinney Police Detective Joe Arp eventuallygathered DNA evidence that linked Raul Cortez to thecrime scene on Truett Street in McKinney, Texas. Inves-tigators collected a cigarette butt from the place whereCortez worked in Florida to use as DNA evidence againstthe suspect. Also, investigators retrieved DNA evidencefrom the latex glove pieces and duct tape that the sus-pects left behind in the house on the day of the murders.Arp used the cigarette butt and the latex pieces to cross-reference and once tested, was found to have matched.The case had not been progressing steadily until TalishaHaithcox, 37, called the police and told them that herboyfriend, Eddie Williams, was involved with the mur-ders of the four victims in McKinney, Texas.Williams and Haithcox went to the police station togetheron June 14, 2007 [?], and cooperated with the policefully. Williams told police officials that before the shoot-ing he had been at Raul Cortez’s house in McKinneyplanning to rob Cliff’s Checking Cashing business, whereRosa Barbosa was the manager. Williams also stated thatwhile they were planning the robbery Raul Cortez firedhis .25-caliber pistol into the ceiling of his house at 312South Kentucky Street in McKinney while his brotherstood outside to listen and see if he could hear the shot be-ing fired. Police officials recovered fragments of the bul-let in the South Kentucky residence, and matched thosebullet fragments to the ones that were removed from vic-tims Mark Barbosa, 25, and Austin York. Williams ad-mitted to shooting Austin York, and explained that hismain reasoning was that the Cortez brothers would havekilled him if he hadn’t shot Austin. Haithcox’s 18-year-old son, Cody, reasoned with the police officials on whyWilliams might have shot Austin. “I heard Shorty (Ed-die Williams’ street name) talk about Javier. He was hisfriend.” (Dallas News) Cody said. “If anything, I thinkthey made him do it. He’s not that type of guy.”Javier Cortez, 31, Raul Cortez, 26, and Eddie Williamswere all arrested and charged. Williams faced four countsof capital murder and was held in the Collin County Jailon a $6 million bail. Raul Cortez was convicted of cap-ital murder and sentenced to death. Javier Cortez wasnot charged with capital murder, but was being held on afederal gun charge and a charge of providing false infor-mation on an application to obtain a firearm.

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2 3 REFERENCES

3 References• Ellis, Tiara M. “Police Use DNA to Tie Mento McKinney Murders.” The Dallas MorningNews. 20 July 2007. Dallas News. 20 July 2007<http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/072007dnmetmckinneydna.2f39562.html>.

• Wixon, Matt. “McKinney North underdogs? TryUnbeaten.” WFAA. 9 Sep. 2006. WFAA. 29 Apr.2008 .

• White, Stefanie. “Star Community Newspapers.”McKinney Courier-Gazette 18 July 2007.

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