Opinion ID: 2791285
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Shootings

Text: Morales operated an automobile body shop in Omaha, Nebraska. On the morning of December 2, 2012, Morales’ fiance dropped him off at the shop and returned home. At approximately 2:15 p.m., she returned to the shop to pick up Morales in order to take him to their son’s birthday party. Morales’ fiance arrived at the shop, opened the shop’s door, and called for Morales. When he did not respond, she climbed the stairs to the shop’s office and saw Morales lying on his stomach with “blood coming out” of him. She observed another man lying face down, but she did not know who the man was. She called the 911 emergency dispatch center, but the operator was unable to understand her. She observed a man outside the shop, and the man was able to give the shop’s address to the 911 operator. Police officers identified the men in the office of Morales’ shop as Morales and Noriega. Both men were deceased upon the officers’ arrival, and autopsies revealed that both men died of gunshot wounds to the head. Nebraska Advance Sheets STATE v. STRICKLIN 547 Cite as 290 Neb. 542 While investigating the shootings, officers interviewed Jose Herrera-Gutierrez, who claimed to have been present during the incident. Although Herrera-Gutierrez did not know the names of the shooters, he had recognized them from prior occasions at Morales’ shop. He knew that one of the shooters had a brother who was potentially a business partner of Morales’ and that the other shooter was associated with a green Volkswagen Beetle that Herrera-Gutierrez had seen at Morales’ shop. Based upon the information provided by Herrera-Gutierrez, officers compiled photographic lineups containing photographs of Stricklin and Newman, and Herrera-Gutierrez identified them as the shooters.