An Arizona guy allegedly shot his girlfriend in the head with a gun he keeps under his pillow and then drove her deceased body to a Phoenix police station in the bed of his pickup truck.
“He loaded up my sister in the back of his truck like it was roadkill,” David Guzman, victim Jessica Guzman’s brother, told local television station KTVK about her lover and alleged killer, Josue Barreras Anaya.
According to Phoenix police, the 36-year-old has been charged with first-degree murder after fatally shooting Jessica Guzman, 32, at his house after an argument.
According to court documents obtained by KTVK, Anaya was apparently asleep in his bedroom with the victim when a revolver he keeps under his pillow dropped to the ground, startling her. Cops say the two of them started fighting, and Anaya claims that when he went to pick up the pistol, Guzman tried to take it from him, resulting in a struggle and two shots fired. According to court filings, one of them smacked Guzman in the head, killing her.
Instead of phoning the cops, Anaya allegedly wrapped Guzman in a duvet and placed her into the bed of his GMC Sierra pickup. He then drove to the Maryvale Estrella Mountain Precinct on Encanto Boulevard and flagged down Phoenix Police officers who were parked there around 5 a.m. Tuesday.
“When you’re a patrol officer, you don’t expect someone to come up to you and just tell you that there’s a deceased person in the back of the truck that you’re responsible for, so I’m sure those officers were perplexed,” Phoenix Police Sgt. Brian Bower told local Fox affiliate KSAZ.
Authorities examined Anaya’s hands for gunshot residue and asked him some “standard procedure questions,” according to court filings, before he requested an attorney.
“We all tried to wake her up and make her see the danger that she was in,” David Guzman told KTVK about his sister, recalling how she had previously stated that Anaya had assaulted her and separated her from relatives. “And he just somehow, some way, kept on weaseling his way back into her life.”
A GoFundMe page set up by the Guzman family described Jessica as a “daughter, sister, and mother” who leaves behind a “young son.”
The description continues: “Her son has lost the most important person in his life, and her mother is grieving not only a daughter, but the pillar who helped her through every step of life.”
Anaya was held on a $1 million bond this week and remained in custody Thursday.
