Rangel sentenced to 20 years for 2017 fatal shooting

A 21-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison in connection with the November 2017 shooting death of a man in an East Lubbock neighborhood.

Daniel Rangel pleaded guilty to murder in connection with the Nov. 29, 2017, shooting death of 34-year-old Isaias Rodriguez in an alley behind an East Lubbock home in the 2500 block of Amherst Street.

He will have to serve half of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Rangel is also serving a 20-year sentence in connection with an unrelated June 2016 arrest to which he admitted to brandishing a gun at a man on April 1, 2016. He was charged in that case with a second-degree felony count of aggravated assault by threat with a deadly weapon and initially was placed on four years of deferred adjudication on Nov. 29, 2016.

His arrest in connection with Rodriguez’s slaying prompted the Lubbock County District Attorney’s Office to revoke his community supervision. He faced a punishment of two to 20 years in prison.

For the murder charge, he faced 5 years to life in prison.

After a week-long hearing in October, prosecutors presented evidence that Rangel violated the conditions of his community supervision by failing to report to his probation officer, failing to complete an anger management course and admitting to smoking marijuana while he was on community supervision.

The majority of that hearing, however, focused on Rodriguez’s slaying.

The court heard Isaias Rodriguez’s 911 call moments before the shooting describing a man wearing a black and red Texas Tech hoodie and a ponytail with colored tips was in the alley behind his house armed with a gun.

Raymond Yarbrough, a next door neighbor told the court he was in his backyard watching the confrontation between the two groups and said he saw the man with the ponytail shoot at the other group as rocks were thrown.

Rodriguez’s brother, Israel, told the court he, his brother and another man, Pedro Olvera, confronted Rangel and his roommate Ethan Delao in an alley behind their home in the 2500 block of Amherst Street. He said he saw Rangel point and shoot at them when he challenged him to fight.

Delao also identified Rangel as the shooter. However, he admitted he lied to police during his initial interview when he said he was he was asleep during the shooting. He said in court that he came forward about a month before the hearing with his new statement placing him in the alley with Rangel, who he said shot Rodriguez.

The court also heard Rangel’s interview with Lubbock police detectives in which Rangel could be seen wearing a ponytail and a black Texas Tech hoodie with red and white lettering, matching the description of the shooting in Rodriguez’s 911 call.

Rangel repeatedly denied shooting Rodriguez during the hour-long interview.

He said he was concerned that people were snooping around his home and he and Delao were investigating footprints he found in his backyard that appeared to have led to the Rodriguez’s home.

He said the Rodriguez brothers and another man confronted him in the alley as he was taking pictures of the footprints.

He said he and one of the men traded insults and he and Delao ran back into their home when he saw one of the men bend to pick up rocks to throw at them.

A Texas Department of Public Safety forensic specialist told the court he found gunshot residue on Rangel’s hands that he believed likely came from a firearm and not a nail gun or stud gun that Rangel’s defense attorney, Audie Reese, suggested.

At the end of the hearing, Judge William Eichman told Rangel there was enough evidence to show he did shoot and kill Rodriguez and sentenced him to 20 years in prison for the aggravated assault charge.

“There's no better reason to sentence you to the maximum,” he told Rangel in October.

The two sentences will run concurrently.

Reese declined to comment after Thursday’s plea hearing.

Prosecutor Barron Slack said Rangel’s sentence for Rodriguez’s slaying considered multiple factors including the death of Olvera, who he described as a critical eye-witness.

However, Slack said he believed the 20-year prison sentence will protect the community from Rangel.

“I do consider him dangerous in the sense that I think he's quick to press a trigger on a gun,” he said. “So my top priority is to get a double digit sentence. The best as the case will produce on an aggravated offense so that he will be midlife before he comes out.”

During the October hearing, Rangel was also linked to the March 8, 2017 shooting death of 20-year-old Roy Reed during a fight between two groups of people at Burns Park.

Probation records show that Rangel told his probation officer that he went to Dallas on March 11, 2017, for work.

However, Delao told the court that Rangel told him that he actually went to Dallas to lay low after shooting and killing another man three days before during a brawl at Burns Park. Delao said Rangel made the admission to him shortly after they met and said he bragged about being questioned by the police about the shooting.

No arrests or charges have been filed in connection with the case.