Jose Cumplido, a 35-year-old resident of Lancaster, California, was tragically shot and killed on February 2, 2017. Cumplido lived in an apartment with two other men in an industrial building that also housed a body shop. He had been residing in the area for about three months and worked for the landlord in a landscaping business. On the morning of February 2, one of Cumplido’s roommates, Mario Jose Estrada, a 24-year-old mechanic for an aerospace company, called his brother and confessed to
killing Cumplido. Estrada reportedly said something to the effect of, "I had to do it," though the credibility of this statement remains uncertain.
Estrada’s brother and mother went to his home and urged him to contact authorities, but Estrada refused. Consequently, the brother, mother, and the third roommate went to the Lancaster sheriff’s station. When deputies arrived at the apartment around 7 a.m., Estrada was gone, and the gas stove was on, burning some items. Smoldering carpet was found in a large trash bin in the living room, and in the bedroom, deputies discovered blood and areas where the carpet had been cut out. Around the same time, a woman living nearby saw a man lying in the dirt in a vacant lot behind the apartment. The man was later identified as Cumplido, who had a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators believe Cumplido was shot in the apartment and then dragged to the field in a large wheeled trash can, which was later returned to the apartment and left in the living room. Estrada turned himself in at the sheriff’s station the next morning, accompanied by several family members. He was arrested and jailed in lieu of $3.05 million bail. Estrada was charged with murder on February 7, 2017, and was scheduled to be arraigned on March 21, 2017, in the Antelope Valley courthouse. The investigation into the motive for the shooting was ongoing, with the third roommate claiming he was asleep and did not hear or see anything.
Estrada faced legal proceedings following his arrest. He was charged with the premeditated murder of Jose Cumplido and the personal discharge of a handgun. During Estrada's first trial, the jury was deadlocked, leading the court to declare a mistrial. In a subsequent trial, Estrada was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and the personal use of a handgun. The case highlights the complexities and challenges faced by law enforcement and the judicial system in determining the circumstances and motivations behind such tragic events.
