Houston, Texas: Man Accused Of Killing Houston Deputy Has Potential Gang Or Cartel Ties, DA Ogg Says

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Oscar Rosales was arrested in Mexico on charges of capital murder for the ambush shooting death of Pct. 5 Corporal Charles Galloway.

Dozens of police greeted Oscar Rosales as he landed in Houston.

Mexican authorities handed the 51-year-old – captured in the death of Cpl. Charles Galloway – to U.S. Marshals in Del Rio, who then flew him back to Houston to face justice on a capital murder of a police officer charge. 

Authorities said they believe the man in their custody had spent decades on the lam for violent crimes spanning two countries – the U.S. and El Salvador. 

Authorities have blamed two deaths — including that of the Harris County Precinct 5 deputy — on Rosales. 

Questions about Rosales’ past and identity continue to unravel in Harris County, with prosecutors looking into possible ties to gangs or drug cartels. Multiple identities – including Aguilar Maricide Albarenga — have been linked to Rosales and he has offered contradicting statements on his nationality.

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg on Thursday said Rosales spent the past 25 years or so hiding from authorities after violating his probation for a 1995 aggravated assault of a deadly weapon charge. She was unsure if authorities had attempted to track him down during that time. About a decade after he absconded, in Central America, he killed someone, she continued.

“It is reported that he is wanted for murder in El Salvador during the time between his 1996 absconding from probation and the murder of Cpl. Galloway,” Ogg said, warning of Rosales’ history of violence. 

“This case has all the ear markings and is a death penalty case,” she said, with officials saying such a punishment has not been ruled out. 

Police said they believe Rosales gunned Galloway down during a traffic stop using a semi-automatic rifle — which Chief Troy Finner would not say had been recovered or not. He also would not say how Rosales entered Mexico to the city of Ciudad Acuña. The chief, however, described the allegations against Rosales as “sheer evilness.”

“He did it and he’s going to be held accountable,” Finner said. 

Finner and other authorities disclosed few details about the investigation into Galloway’s death during a news conference Thursday at Houston Police Department headquarters with officials from the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, the Texas Department of Public Safety. Authorities on Wednesday morning had announced his arrest and then discussed the potential of extradition.

Marshal T. Michael O’Connor said intense planning went into picking Rosales up and flying him about 350 miles back to Houston. 

“They were on the spot the minute they heard they were going to bring him to the bridge,” O’Connor said, referencing the hand-off from Mexican authorities. The drive to the jail also took planning. 

“They didn’t want any situation where they were stopped,” O’Connor said. 

The show of force and symbolism as authorities escorted Rosales back to Houston in droves after his three-day manhunt did not go unnoticed. Authorities restrained him with Galloway’s handcuffs and surrounded him Wednesday night as a Harris County magistrate ordered that he be held without bail.

Rosales interrupted the magistrate, Carol Carrier, to say that many of those officers likely want him dead.

"All the officers, and the security guy, they want to, like, try and kill me right here,” Rosales told the magistrate, despite being advised to not talk. “They can do it. Whatever. I don't care. Everybody in this room has waited for this chance to hurt me.”

Carrier urged him to instead listen to his Spanish-speaking interpreter.

The magistrate attempted to distinguish Rosales’ citizenship during the probable cause hearing to no avail.

Rosales said his father was from Mexico but that he lived some time in El Salvador before telling her he was a Guatemalan citizen. Court records from 1995 and this week list him as a Salvadoran national.

Authorities are contacting consulates in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to track down Rosales’ birth country, Ogg said.

Officials with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they believe Rosales is in the country without permission.

“Rosales previously illegally entered the U.S. on an unknown date and at unknown location without inspection or parole by U.S. immigration officials and later fled to Mexico after allegedly murdering a Harris County (Texas) Constables Office deputy,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement.

Immigration detainers have been lodged against Rosales and two other people – his wife and her brother – after it was revealed that they were in the country without permission, too.

The wife, Reina Marquez, 40, and from El Salvador, and her brother, Henri Marquez, 42, of Mexico, are being held on tampering with evidence charges after police believe the two cleaned the car that Rosales was in when he shot and killed Galloway, according to court records. 

ICE officials referred to Rosales by the name “Jose Oscar Rosales” – an alias used in his 1995 aggravated assault of a deadly weapon case.

Two more people, a father and son, were charged Wednesday in connection to Rosales’ escape.

Police believe Rosales ditched his Toyota Avalon used in the shooting and got into a green Lexus with distinctive rims, according to court records. Investigators tracked that car to the 3200 block of Broadway Street  and encountered 43-year-old Jose Romel Hernandez and his 68-year-old father Jose Santos Gutierrez.

Hernandez encountered Rosales before his flight to Mexico and helped him pawn a gold chain and bracelet, according to court records. He initially told police that he had not seen Rosales in months but later said Rosales came to his home, claiming to have been involved in a shooting Sunday, according to court records. Rosales asked for help to flee the country “because he was in trouble,” records continued. 

Hernandez and his father, who told police he had not seen Rosales in years, have been charged with hindering apprehension, records show. The father has since bonded out of jail, while the son is being held without bail.

Rosales, meanwhile, is expected on Friday to appear in the 482nd District Court. Appointed attorneys for Rosales, Rudy Duarte and Allen Tanner, declined to comment. 

Harris County Precinct 5 Corporal Charles Galloway who was shot and killed while conducting a traffic stop in the 9100 block of Beechnut Street at about 12:45 am., Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022 in Houston.

Oscar Rosales was arrested in Mexico on charges of capital murder for the ambush shooting death of Pct. 5 Corporal Charles Galloway.

Houston Chron