On the evening of November 27, 2023, a normally quiet neighborhood in Northwest Oklahoma City was disturbed by the sound of gunfire. Shortly before 6:30 p.m., police responded to calls of shots fired near Northwest 10th Street and Meridian Avenue. When officers arrived, they found Matthew Brooks, a 47-year-old White man, inside his van with multiple gunshot wounds. Paramedics rushed him to OU Medical Center, but he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead.
The death of Brooks, who had attended Edmond Memorial High School, was recorded as the city’s 69th homicide of the year.
The investigation began immediately, though it was initially unclear what had led to the shooting or how many people were involved. A neighbor told reporters she heard about five shots: "three real fast and then a little break and then two more." The critical breakthrough came from the Oklahoma City Police Department's Real Time Information Center, which obtained surveillance footage of a suspect’s pickup truck near the scene. Using this video, along with Flock cameras and cell phone records, detectives were able to track a white Dodge Ram pickup from Guymon, Oklahoma, to Oklahoma City.
Investigators determined that three men had conspired to kill Matthew Brooks. Surveillance footage from a casino in Hinton showed the suspects together hours before the murder, wearing the same clothing they were seen in during the crime. Police identified the men as 21-year-old Eric Daniel Triana, 28-year-old Jose Avelar-Martinez, and 22-year-old Jose Resendiz. On December 7, 2023, Oklahoma City police and the United States Marshals Service arrested Triana and Avelar-Martinez in Guymon. The third suspect, Resendiz, was apprehended in Kansas City on the morning of January 10, 2024.
All three men were charged in connection with the murder. The case saw a major development in February 2025, when Jose Avelar-Martinez, then 30, and Jose Resendiz, then 23, pleaded guilty to the murder of Matthew Brooks. Both men were sentenced to life in prison and waived their rights to appeal, bringing a resolution to their part in the case.
