Isaac Gonzales admitted to his role in the death of Novita Brazil, inset. (Brazil’s photo from GoFundMe; courtroom screenshot from ABC San Antonio, Texas, affiliate KSAT12)
A teenager in Texas admitted this week to firing 100 bullets into the wrong home — killing an innocent woman who was at her computer studying.
Isaac Gonzales, 17, entered his plea in the death of Novita Brazil, 25. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors and defense lawyers agreed to a concurrent sentence — 40 years for murder and 20 years for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. A judge has already accepted the terms and Gonzales is set to be formally sentenced on Tuesday, online court records show. Gonzales — a minor at the time of the shooting — had been certified to stand trial as an adult.
As Law&Crime reported in November, Brazil was killed at her home in the 11000 block of Bald Mountain Road in San Antonio after midnight on Oct. 5, 2022, authorities said.
Gonzales and a 15-year-old shot up the house, thinking they were shooting at the home of a group of gang members who had shot at them, authorities said.
“But tragically enough, they struck the wrong house,” said Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar at a news conference announcing Gonzales’ arrest. “They hit the next-door neighbor. She was a completely innocent bystander, just a young lady working her way through college, doing her homework during the wee hours of the night, burning the midnight oil.”
A 41-year-old woman in town for a San Antonio Spurs game — renting a room for the night — was also wounded as she slept, Salazar said.
Police quickly found the suspected shooters in a stolen KIA and engaged them in a high-speed chase. Along the way, the suspects allegedly dumped several guns Salazar said were used in the shooting, including a small assault-style rifle, authorities said. A passenger in the vehicle was recording a live video on Instagram during the police chase, “knowing full well that he was running from the cops, knowing full well he was going to be arrested at any given time,” Salazar said. “This is how much of a joke it is to these guys.”
They were arrested and booked into jail, where they made bail and cut off their GPS-enabled ankle monitors, Salazar said. Warrants were issued for their arrests.
Gonzales was shooting a Facebook Live video when he was rearrested. He had taunted cops on social media, saying, “Tell everyone at the gang unit, ‘Catch me’” before the gang unit did just that, Salazar said.
Trial is scheduled against the other teen in adult court later this month.
“These are just, in my opinion, bloodthirsty young heathens with no regard for human life,” Salazar said. “I’m happy that we were able to put him behind bars. They killed an innocent young lady, a 25-year-old woman that was just living her life, pursuing her degree. And these two jack wagons took her life.”
A GoFundMe page said Brazil was from Indonesia and was living in San Antonio with her husband of three years. Salazar said her husband was in the military stationed there.
“Vita was a beautiful 25 year old woman,” the page said. “She was the sweetest person you would ever meet. She was kind, selfless, funny, loving, adventurous, and had a heart of gold.”
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