A Texas father allegedly shot an innocent Amazon executive who was spending Christmas away from his family after mistaking him for his daughter’s kidnapper.
Jonathan Ross Mata, 39, was captured pointing his gun at a fleeing SUV outside a Shell gas station in Houston and firing gunfire, killing 25-year-old Desmond Butler around 1 a.m. on December 25, according to footage obtained by KHO 11.
The tragic chain of events began when Mata and his wife received a panicked phone call from their 19-year-old daughter, who said she had been attacked by her boyfriend. Houston police said.
She initially asked to be picked up at her cousin’s apartment, but about half an hour later, Mata and his wife thought she would be dropped off at the gas station by her boyfriend instead.
Moments after the frantic parents arrived at the Shell station, a vehicle driven by a man who appeared to be their daughter’s boyfriend and a woman sitting in the passenger seat pulled into the parking lot, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Law & Crime.
“Defendant stated that he believed his daughter was in the vehicle driven by (Butler) and that as the vehicle drove past them, his wife got out and began pursuing it on foot,” the complaint states.
Surveillance video shows Butler driving his gray Honda Pilot into the gas station parking lot and passing Matas’ black GMC Acadia at the pump, when Mata’s wife suddenly got out and ran after the vehicle, reaching for the rear passenger door.
Butler – seemingly unaware of what was happening – then accelerated out of the parking lot and onto an access road off the Sam Houston Parkway.
The footage returns to the GMC, where Mata walks towards the fleeing Honda armed with a gun.
Mata then allegedly opened fire on the Honda Pilot, hitting Butler, who then lost control of the vehicle and struck a pole.
Mata and his wife then drove to the crash site and pulled open Butler’s passenger door after realizing he was not their daughter’s boyfriend, the complaint said.
“(The defendant) looked inside the vehicle and said something to the effect of, ‘Oh, we were looking for our kidnapped daughter, I’m sorry, we’ll call 911,’ and then drove away,” the complaint said.
By the time first responders arrived, the couple had left the scene and Butler was rushed to a local hospital, where he later died from his injuries.
Mata and his wife appeared at the police station on Monday with a lawyer and claimed that the fatal shooting was the result of a misunderstanding about the kidnapping.
Mata told investigators he fired two shots at the vehicle in an attempt to stop it, then watched it crash before leaving the scene without calling for help, the complaint said.
Mata is accused of murder and turned himself in on Wednesday. He posted $50,000 bail and will appear in court on February 25, Law & Crime reported.
Butler’s sister, Destiny, told the story KHO 11 that their family, who live in Georgia, are “devastated” by his death.
She said her brother moved to Houston in 2023 to work at Amazon and later become a manager, and he had no plans that Christmas Day.
“We just want answers about why him? My brother was a light of joy,” she said.
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