Police book 3rd suspect in death of man shot in tussle over rifle in northwest Fort Worth
Police have booked on suspicion of murder a third suspect in a March 2020 homicide in northwest Fort Worth in which two others have pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
Detectives linked Maximilliano Sandoval, 20, to the death of 23-year-old Decoda Roberts by a black Chrysler 300 in which they believe the assailants traveled to and from the killing scene. The car was registered to Sandoval’s mother. In an interview with detectives, Sandoval said he was away from his car and at his girlfriend’s house when Roberts was shot.
Sandoval was booked into the city jail on Monday.
Chad Burrell, 34, and Isaiah Story, 21, in December pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Roberts’ death. Burrell was sentenced in Criminal District Court No. 2 in Tarrant County to 12 years in prison. Story was sentenced to eight years in prison. Both had been indicted on murder.
Roberts died on March 6, 2020, from a gunshot wound, and his death was a homicide, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. He was shot in the chest in the 4300 block of Poinsetta Drive and was pronounced dead at a hospital about 35 minutes later.
In early 2020, someone fired rounds in the air near the residence where Story and his twin brother lived in Fort Worth, according to an account described in an affidavit supporting an arrest warrant for Burrell that was written by a Fort Worth police homicide detective.
In February, the Story brothers pulled a rifle on Roberts because they believed he was the person who fired the rounds, according to a statement from an eyewitness to the moments after Roberts’ shooting that is included in the affidavit.
House surveillance video from the 4300 block of Poinsetta Drive showed that on March 6 three assailants wearing hooded jackets approached Roberts, who was in the neighborhood to work on a friend’s car.
As the three people walk up, the video recorded the sound of a gun being racked. Roberts says, “I ain’t never shoot at your house. I ain’t never [expletive] with y’all. I ain’t never [expletive] with none of y’all,” according to the affidavit.
In the video, the three assailants circle Roberts while he says, “I ain’t fighting nobody. I’m going home.”
One of the assailants says something, and Roberts replies, “I’m a grown [expletive] man too, but I’m going the [expletive] home. I ain’t fighting nobody. I’m not trying to fight nobody.”
At some point, Roberts brandished a rifle.
Another sound as if a second gun is being racked can be heard on the video, according to the affidavit.
In the video, one of the suspects appears to wrestle away an item believed to be Roberts’ rifle, while another suspect hits Roberts in the head with a long shiny item, possibly a baseball bat, before a gunshot is heard, according to the affidavit.
Burrell was armed with a BB gun, according to a bond reduction motion his attorney filed.
