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HOUSTON - A repeat offender gets life in prison after a deadly shooting in Houston in 2018 after committing several other crimes since the 1980s.
61-year-old Angel Luis Mexico was convicted on Tuesday after a seven-day trial for the murder of nightclub owner, 42-year-old Lamonte Bush on June 29, 2018.
"This was a violent and tragic ambush of a father and an entrepreneur," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. "We have worked for five years to get justice for this victim’s family, and this was the right result."
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Mexico reportedly ambushed Bush while he was standing outside the club he owned on Wayside. Bush was talking to his wife and 9-year-old daughter while the two were inside a parked car. The club owner was leaning into the window of the car talking to them when Mexico came from behind and shot him in the back of the head.
Angel Luis Mexico
Assistant District Attorney Amanda Benavides prosecuted the case with ADA Sepi Zimmer and said Bush was an attentive father and a conscientious small-business owner.
"Lamonte was well known and well-liked in the neighborhood, and he was in front of the lounge that he had just opened a few months earlier," Benavides said. "Angel Mexico knew that Lamonte had been involved with his adult daughter in the past and did not approve of it."
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Trial testimony revealed Mexico has a lengthy criminal record, including convictions from the 1980s for domestic violence. The Cuban national testified he was one of the criminals released from prison by then President Fidel Castro in 1980 and immigrated to the U.S.
Lamonte Bush
According to reports, Mexico was sent to prison for stabbing a woman in Minnesota in 1981. After he was released, he moved to Texas where he was convicted of a robbery in 1983. Four years later in 1987, he shot at two police officers after robbing a convenience store and was sentenced to 25 years in prison for capital murder.
Once he was released, officials say, he was in and out of jail several times for violent acts before ultimately killing Bush.
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After he was found guilty, Mexico opted to have the judge decide his punishment. State District Judge Kristin Guiney heard testimony from several witnesses, including Mexico, and sentenced him to life in prison.
Zimmer noted how Bush’s daughter, who was nine at the time and sitting in the front seat talking to her father when she saw Mexico shoot him, had to identify the killer in court.
"It’s been a really, really hard five years on the family, especially for the victim’s daughter, who knew she would have to testify," Zimmer said. "They have been waiting for this case to end, so they are grateful to the jury that diligently reviewed the evidence to find him guilty and to the judge for sentencing him to life. Now they can move on with their lives."