The Miami-Dade Police have released the arrest report of Damian Valdez-Galloso, the sole suspect in the murder of the Cuban reggaeton artist José Manuel Carbajal Zaldívar (El Taiger).
The document—although brief and with some gaps—states that El Taiger arrived at Damian's house at approximately 5:24 a.m. on October 3rd.
The report does not specify the singer's demeanor upon arriving at the home of the now-accused, nor what the nature of the exchange between them was before the shot was fired.
The statement only reveals that from inside the house, Damian shot the victim in the forehead.
Immediately afterwards, the accused exited through a back door of the residence, dragged El Taiger's body by the ankles to a Mercedes Benz SUV, loaded it by himself, and left it there.
He then proceeded to clean the crime scene, and after considering that he had erased the main traces, Damian changed his clothes and headed towards the vicinity of the trauma center at Jackson Memorial Hospital around 6:00 a.m.
The police received an emergency call made by Damian, and the authorities arrived around 6:45 a.m.
Once at the scene, the police found El Taiger's body bleeding from the head near the intersection of Northwest 9th Avenue and 17th Street in Miami.
Between the time El Taiger arrived at Damian's house and when the body was discovered by the police, less than an hour and a half had passed, contrary to the initial belief that it had been hours.
However, there was enough time for such a gunshot wound to make the victim's recovery impossible.
The reggaeton artist was transferred to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he remained in critical condition for a week before passing away on October 10, sparking a wave of shock and mourning among his fans.
This Wednesday, Damian arrived in Miami extradited from New York, and on the very next day, he had his first appearance in the Miami-Dade criminal court before Judge Mindy S. Glazer, who denied him bail.
In a live broadcast on Facebook, Univision journalist Mario Vallejo clarified this Thursday that there is no evidence that anyone assisted Damian in moving the body after the shooting.
Vallejo made other notes, such as the consideration that the fact that El Taiger's pants were down to his knee—which led to rumors of assault or humiliation that were denied by the police—could have been motivated by Damian's effort to drag the body, which might have caused the reggaeton artist's pants to slip down during the maneuver.
The communicator stated that this Wednesday the police revisited the crime scene and recovered evidence at Damian's house following the interview with the accused.
Mario Vallejo stated that he has tried to obtain an explanation from the police to clarify the possibility that a crime was being committed inside Damián's house at the moment El Taiger arrived, which might have led him not to call the police to stop El Taiger's behavior that—although the report does not clarify—apparently was not "friendly."
However, the journalist expressed doubt that Damian's lawyer could argue that the shooting was in "self-defense" since El Taiger was unarmed.
The communicator also referred to the lack of evidence that the Prosecutor's Office has to classify the murder as "premeditated," which resulted in the proposed charge being second-degree murder—carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison—rather than first-degree murder, which implies premeditation and could be punishable by life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
"It seems that it was all part of an outburst, a clash between both individuals," concluded Vallejo, who predicted that, if Damian's guilt is confirmed, he faces many years in prison, as in addition to the murder of El Taiger, he has an extensive criminal record.
Valdez-Galloso faces three charges: second-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and possession of a firearm.
Profile of the accused and criminal background
Damian Valdez-Galloso, known by the alias "El Narra," has a documented criminal history that spans over a decade.
Between 2007 and 2018, he accumulated six convictions, including two cases for engaging in sexual relations with minors aged 16 to 17, and three for failing to register as a sex offender.
In addition, in 2018, he was convicted of grand theft and was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2015 and 2019.
He was released from prison for the last time in September 2020, and in 2021, he faced a grand theft charge in Miami-Dade County.
Records show that, as a convicted felon, Valdez-Galloso lived in Hialeah as a registered sex offender. The last reported address of the suspect was a coral-colored house located at the intersection of SE 5th Street and 5th Avenue.
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