On the night of July 23, 2025, 19-year-old male Joe Angel Martinez III was found shot inside a vehicle that had crashed into a stone mailbox at Roosevelt Street and Rio Concho Drive in San Angelo.
Officers had initially been dispatched around 10 p.m. for a motor vehicle accident; upon arrival they discovered Joe Angel Martinez III, age 19, with a gunshot wound. He was transported to Shannon Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators quickly traced the path of the vehicle back to the nearby River Pointe Apartments, where security footage and witness statements later described three individuals approaching the car before it sped away.
According to court documents reported by local media, the shooting of 19-year-old male Joe Angel Martinez III unfolded during a drug deal set up at the complex, and the wounded driver then fled the lot before crashing at the intersection.
Within two days, San Angelo Police announced the first arrest: 17-year-old Justin Ramirez was taken into custody and charged with murder in the death of 19-year-old male Joe Angel Martinez III.
At a press conference on July 25, police named two additional teenagers, 17-year-old Davon Lewis and 16-year-old Dominick Garcia, as suspects wanted on murder charges in the same case, stating they believed the homicide was narcotics-related and that the victim and suspects knew each other.
By July 27, authorities confirmed that all three suspects were in custody in connection with the killing of 19-year-old male Joe Angel Martinez III.
Follow-up reports noted that Ramirez had been booked into the Tom Green County Jail on a murder charge and that Lewis and Garcia were likewise arrested on murder charges, bringing the initial manhunt to a close as the investigation continued.
News outlets and the city's official release together outline the spare but stark facts: a nighttime crash that began as a routine accident call, the discovery of a critically injured 19-year-old male named Joe Angel Martinez III behind the wheel, and a case that swiftly shifted into a homicide investigation tied to an alleged drug transaction.
The narrative, threaded through police statements, court filings, and local reporting, ends, for now, with three teens arrested and a community left to mourn a life cut short.
