SAN ANTONIO – A suspected murderer is behind bars after investigators say technology helped link him to the crime.
San Antonio Police arrested Joseph Melgar-Hernandez on Wednesday and charged him with the murder of Damion Franklin, who’s body was dumped along a West Side road.
Franklin’s body was found just before 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 20 along Texas State Highway 151 and South Callaghan Road. He had been shot in the back twice and his phone had alerted authorities of the impact and location.
Police tracked call logs and text messages between Hernandez and Franklin on the night Franklin was killed. Just after 1 a.m., the GPS tracker on Franklin’s phone put him at Amanda’s Food Mart along Porter Street on the East Side. Surveillance footage showed Hernandez getting into the passenger’s side of Franklin’s vehicle and then driving off. Twelve minutes later, Franklin’s iPhone crash detection alerted 911 of a crash and gave first responder’s his location.
Investigators also got surveillance footage from a witness of Hernandez walking in the same location where the victim was in the moments before he was killed.
According to the police report, the killing may have been over debt owed over a narcotics deal.
Hernandez is being held at the Bexar County Jail on $250,000 bond.
