Man sentenced to life for gunning down 2 brothers during ambush in NE Houston
Marlon Brandon Valdez (Photo courtesy of Harris County District Attorney's Office)
HOUSTON - A man was sentenced to life in prison Monday for shooting down two brothers during an ambush in northeast Houston back in 2019.
Marlon Brandon Valdez, 22, was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Monday after officials said he ambushed and shot down Julio Aguilar, 23, and Maximo Aguilar, 20.
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He was 18 at the time, according to court records, when he was at a cul-de-sac on Eastbrook Drive near Jacinto City waiting on the two boys to show up.
Prosecutors said the three all knew each other from high school and two days before the shooting, Valdez lost a fight with the brothers and claimed he wanted a rematch at the same location.
"The spot was well-known to youths who went there to settle their differences as ‘The Settling Spot,’" the Harris County District Attorney's Office said in a press release.
Court records stated Valdez climbed on top of a vacant house in the cul-de-sac and hid there with an AR-15 until the Aguilar brothers drove up and got out of their cars.
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Once they arrived, Valdez opened fire on the brothers and two other people in the car with them. Investigators said they found a total of 58 shell casings at the scene. The Aguilar brothers died at the scene, while the other two were wounded.
"One of the victims had a baby on the way and the other had just had a baby, so their families were just devastated," Assistant District Attorney Joshua Raygor said in the press statement.
The now 22-year-old was convicted of capital murder by a Harris County jury after a week-long trial. Punishment for capital murder is an automatic life sentence without parole.
"The families of these victims will never see their loved ones again because a teenager with an assault rifle decided to execute two teenagers he got in a fight with," Harris Co. D.A. Kim Ogg said. "Far too often, young people think they can do whatever they want, and hurt whoever they want, and just escape the consequences. But the consequences are real."