On Halloween night in 2020, a small gathering in a Crystal, Minnesota, home turned tragic, ending the life of 26-year-old Maricio Mata-Thelen, a Hispanic male from St. Paul. The evening of October 31st was shattered by the sound of a gunshot inside a residence on the 5500 block of Yates Avenue North. When Crystal police officers arrived around 9 p.m., they found Mata-Thelen on the floor, bleeding from a fatal gunshot wound to his torso.
Despite attempts by first responders to save him, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Inside the home with Mata-Thelen were three other men who were initially uncooperative with investigators. They insisted the shooting was an accident but would not identify who fired the weapon and provided false information about their locations at the time of the incident. The man responsible, 29-year-old Angel Villalva, had already fled the house. Later that same night, Villalva walked into the Bloomington Police Department, with the Kimber. 45-caliber handgun wrapped in a jacket, and confessed to killing Mata-Thelen. He was taken into custody by Crystal police.
Villalva told authorities that the shooting was a tragic mistake. He claimed he had the gun out to be "cool" in front of the other men when one of them commented that it looked jammed. According to his account, he removed the magazine and began banging the gun on the floor and a wall to fix it when it accidentally discharged, striking Mata-Thelen. However, the evidence uncovered during the investigation told a different story.
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's autopsy revealed that the bullet entered the back of Mata-Thelen's neck, traveling in a downward trajectory through his lung, stomach, and colon. This path was inconsistent with a bullet ricocheting off the floor as Villalva had claimed. Investigators at the scene also found no evidence to support his account of a ricochet. Based on this contradicting evidence, authorities alleged the shooting was intentional. Angel Villalva was subsequently charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Maricio Mata-Thelen. Family members, grieving the loss of an "incredible young soul taken way too soon," hoped to raise awareness about gun violence in the wake of their tragedy.
