McKinney homicide

On March 12, 2004, Eddie Williams, Javier Cortez, and Raul Cortez entered the home of Rosa Barbosa (46), a clerk at a local McKinney check-cashing business. Javier Cortez allegedly had been watching Barbosa and believed that she took cash home from the business every day.[1] When the men couldn't find any money in the home, they forced Barbosa to give them the key and alarm code to the check cashing business. One of the men then shot and killed Barbosa.[2]

Before the gunmen had left, Barbosa's nephew Mark Barbosa (25) entered the home with friends Matt Self (17) and Austin York (18).[3] The three burglars forced Mark Barbosa, Self, and York into a bedroom and shot them before fleeing the scene.[4] Shortly following the botched robbery, Robert Barbosa - Mark Barbosa's brother and a resident in the house - entered the residence to find the four victims.[5] Self was still alive and was rushed to the hospital. He died the following day.

One month after the killings, police had believed that they had solved the case, but soon realized that the suspects were not guilty, due to a lack of evidence and were released. It wasn't until several years after the case that the authorities were led to Eddie Williams and the Cortez brothers. McKinney Police Detective Joe Arp eventually gathered DNA evidence that linked Raul Cortez to the crime scene on Truett Street in McKinney, Texas. Investigators collected a cigarette butt from the place where Cortez worked in Florida to use as DNA evidence against the suspect. Also, investigators retrieved DNA evidence from the latex glove pieces and duct tape that the suspects left behind in the house on the day of the murders. Arp used the cigarette butt and the latex pieces to cross-reference and once tested, was found to have matched. The case had not been progressing steadily until Talisha Haithcox, 37, called the police and told them that her boyfriend, Eddie Williams, was involved with the murders of the four victims in McKinney, Texas.

Williams and Haithcox went to the police station together on June 14, 2007, and cooperated with the police fully. Williams told police officials that before the shooting he had been at Raul Cortez’s house in McKinney planning to rob Cliff's Checking Cashing business, where Rosa Barbosa was the manager. Williams also stated that while they were planning the robbery Raul Cortez fired his .25-caliber pistol into the ceiling of his house at 312 South Kentucky Street in McKinney while his brother stood outside to listen and see if he could hear the shot being fired. Police officials recovered fragments of the bullet in the South Kentucky residence, and matched those bullet fragments to the ones that were removed from victims Mark Barbosa, 25, and Austin York. Williams admitted to shooting Austin York, and explained that his main reasoning was that the Cortez brothers would have killed him if he hadn't shot Austin. Haithcox's 18-year-old son, Cody, reasoned with the police officials on why Williams might have shot Austin. "I heard Shorty (Eddie Williams’ street name) talk about Javier. He was his friend," (Dallas News) Cody said. "If anything, I think they made him do it. He's not that type of guy."

Javier Cortez, 31; Raul Cortez, 26; and Eddie Williams were all arrested and charged. Williams pled guilty to three counts of murder in 2010 and was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.[6] Raul Cortez was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. Javier Cortez pled guilty to federal weapons charges and was sentenced to four years in prison.[7]

• Ellis, Tiara M. "Police Use DNA to Tie Men to McKinney Murders." The Dallas Morning News. 20 July 2007. Dallas News. 20 July 2007 <http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/072007dnmetmckinneydna.2f39562.html>.
• Wixon, Matt. "McKinney North underdogs? Try Unbeaten." WFAA. 9 Sep. 2006. WFAA. 29 Apr. 2008 .
• White, Stefanie. "Star Community Newspapers." McKinney Courier-Gazette 18 July 2007.