Carlos Ray Aguirre was a 21-year-old Hispanic/Latino man whose life ended during a gathering at a west-side Sioux City residence in the early hours of October 29, 2022. Aguirre had been spending the night with a group of friends and acquaintances at a home in the 1400 block of West Fifth Street. The gathering included music, alcohol and several firearms, something witnesses later described as not especially unusual within the group.
Among those present were Joseph Nathan Cruz and Cruz's cousin, Anthony Williams.
For much of the evening, the group appeared to get along, but the atmosphere eventually changed. Aguirre and Cruz began arguing in the kitchen, with the disagreement centered on firearms. Court records indicated that Aguirre and Cruz were friends, but tension had developed because Cruz wanted a Shadow Systems pistol that Aguirre possessed. Because Aguirre was legally old enough to purchase firearms, he had reportedly obtained guns for Cruz in the past. Witnesses described Cruz as angry or upset as the argument grew louder and turned physical.
Aguirre and Cruz began punching and shoving one another as others became involved in the struggle. Aguirre at one point held the Shadow Systems pistol, but witnesses said he was pointing it toward the floor rather than at another person. Several people wrestled over the weapon until it came into Cruz's possession. According to the evidence later presented in court, Aguirre was no longer holding a gun or any other weapon when Cruz fired several shots in rapid succession.
Aguirre was struck in the head and chest and collapsed inside the kitchen. Williams was also shot in the chest. Sioux City police officers were dispatched to the residence at approximately 2:15 a.m. and found both victims unresponsive on the kitchen floor. Aguirre was pronounced dead at the scene. Williams was taken to MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Autopsies determined that both deaths were homicides caused by gunshot wounds.
After the shooting, witnesses described Cruz as stunned and emotionally detached. One person recalled seeing him standing in the living room before he shrugged and walked outside. Cruz gave the Shadow Systems pistol to his girlfriend and asked her to place it in a bag beneath a seat in his vehicle. He then arrived at UnityPoint Health–St. Luke's at about 2:40 a.m. seeking treatment for a gunshot wound to his upper thigh.
Police located Cruz at the hospital. During his initial interview, he denied being involved and offered an account that detectives found implausible. After investigators confronted him with inconsistencies, Cruz claimed that he had acted in self-defense because he was afraid of Aguirre. He said he struck Aguirre, took the gun and fired it, maintaining that he intended only to frighten him rather than kill him. Cruz initially denied shooting Williams but later acknowledged that he could have struck him accidentally.
Authorities arrested Cruz and charged him with two counts of second-degree murder, one for Aguirre's death and another for Williams's death. Prosecutors argued that Cruz deliberately fired after gaining control of the weapon and that Aguirre was unarmed when the fatal shots were fired. The defense attempted to portray the shooting as the culmination of a chaotic struggle over a loaded pistol and presented testimony suggesting that Aguirre moved toward Cruz after Cruz obtained the gun.
A Woodbury County jury returned its verdict in December 2023. Cruz was found guilty of second-degree murder in Aguirre's killing but acquitted of murder in Williams's death. The differing verdicts indicated that jurors concluded the state had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Cruz unlawfully killed Aguirre, while finding insufficient evidence to hold him criminally responsible for Williams's fatal wound under the murder charge presented.
In January 2024, Cruz was sentenced in Woodbury County District Court to 50 years in prison. Under the sentence, he must serve a mandatory minimum of 35 years before becoming eligible for parole. The court also ordered him to pay $150,000 to Aguirre's estate. Cruz appealed, challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, the denial of a motion to suppress, an evidentiary ruling involving a rebuttal witness and the court's refusal to give a requested jury instruction. On March 5, 2025, the Iowa Court of Appeals rejected those arguments and affirmed his conviction, leaving the guilty verdict and prison sentence in place.
