The mother of an 18-year-old charged with shooting a man to death in a Denver intersection last month sold the murder weapon on Facebook, according to an arrest affidavit.
Aaron Roybal, 52, was fatally shot in the head at South Sheridan Boulevard and West Wyoming Place around 9:11 p.m. on Jan. 12, Denver police said. Two weeks after Roybal’s death, 18-year-old Giovanni Gonzalez was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, according to court records.
Gonzales and Roybal both visited a cannabis dispensary on Sheridan just minutes before the shooting, investigators said in the arrest affidavit.
Surveillance video at the shop shows Roybal and a woman identified as Gonzalez’s mother entering the store. Before entering, Gonzelez’s mother exited the backseat of a car that security footage revealed to be driven by her 18-year-old son, according to the arrest affidavit.
The woman and Roybal both spent several minutes inside the store but were at separate counters and checked out at separate registers without ever interacting, investigators said.
As Gonzalez, driving a white Honda Pilot, pulled out of his parking spot, so did Roybal. Roybal stopped to let Gonzalez finish maneuvering out of the cramped parking lot and left one minute later.
The affidavit said Gonzalez turned out of the parking lot onto Wyoming and then turned again onto Sheridan. When Roybal stopped at the intersection of Sheridan and Wyoming for a red light, police said Gonzalez pulled a U-turn and drove back up Sheridan to Roybal’s car.
That’s when Roybal got out of his car and was shot, suddenly collapsing to the ground as Gonzalez fled the scene, according to the affidavit.
Officers who responded to the shooting found only Roybal’s body and a single 9 mm casing.
According to the arrest affidavit, officers were able to identify Gonzelez’s mother and trace her to an Englewood address after obtaining a warrant to tap and track her phone. Four days after the shooting, they followed her to a second address and watched the garage door open, revealing the missing suspect vehicle parked inside.
The woman refused to speak to police, but detectives seized her phone and found Facebook messages showing she sold the gun to a man in Thornton, according to the affidavit.
Investigators also found photos of Gonzalez holding the gun and messages she had sent to the buyer detailing how her son “wants it gone,” the affidavit stated.
When Denver police recovered the gun, a forensics team found it was an exact match to the bullet casing found at the crime scene, according to the affidavit.
No charges have been filed against the mother, but Gonzalez is next scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 27, court records show.
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