Suspect Pleads Guilty in Fatal Attack On Security Guard

June 7, 2021 – A 28-year-old Memphis man pled guilty Monday in the 2013 shooting and slashing murder of a security guard at a North Memphis salvage yard, said Shelby County Dist. Atty. Gen. Amy Weirich.

Defendant Brent Gomez pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison by Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan. Gomez pled guilty just as a jury was to be picked for his trial.

The murder occurred in the nighttime and early-morning hours of Oct. 12-13, 2013 at the salvage yard in the 1500 block of Chelsea where the victim, Jose Alberto Vilchis Villareal, 39, was a security guard and lived on the property.

An investigation showed that Gomez and codefendant, Candelario del Angel, 43, who were acquaintances of the victim, got into an altercation with him, striking Villareal in the face and head with the butt of a shotgun.

The pair left, but then returned a short time later to remove a security camera and surveillance system that may have recorded the attack. Before leaving the scrapyard, Gomez struck Villareal several times in the neck and face with a machete. At instructions from Gomez, del Angel then shot Villareal in the head, and the pair left the scene.

Gomez and del Angel were developed as suspects and gave statements of admission, though each described the other as the leader of the attack. The case against del Angel is pending.

The lengthy case involved two defendants, the collection of background information from their native country of Mexico, numerous procedural hearings, and coordinating the efforts of other agencies.

The case was handled by Asst. Dist. Atty. Leslie Byrd and Chief Prosecutor Stephanie Johnson of the District Attorney’s Vertical Team 2.