PAUL SALINAS - 11 yo (1983)/ charged: Raymond Yucatan Guzman - Houston TX

A Gallatin TN man is facing charges in connection with a decades-old homicide in Houston, Texas.Police on Tuesday arrested 47-year-old Raymond Guzman at his Sumner County home. Investigators said they think he killed 11-year-old Paul Salinas in 1983.  The child's body was found near railroad tracks with his head beaten with a piece of concrete, police said.Officers questioned Guzman shortly after the crime occurred, but he denied any involvement and blamed someone else.But five years later, while in jail on a burglary charge, Guzman wrote a statement explaining how he killed Salinas.The Houston Police Department said it is looking into why murder charges were not filed sooner."A lot of the investigators that were around during the original homicide in '83 and then in '88 are either retired or deceased, so there are some missing pieces that we have right now, and we're looking into that," said Lt. Richard Kleczynski of the Houston Police Department.This week, Houston detectives traveled to Gallatin, where Guzman has been living for some 20 years. Guzman had a history of arrests for drugs and public intoxication. Police responded to half a dozen domestic violence calls."My brother's a sick man.  He's been sick for a long time," said Mary Lou Munguia, Guzman's sister.Munguia said that for years her family tried to get help for her brother but never could. She said he cursed at the neighbors for no reason, and screamed at his mother. He was an alcoholic and took drugs, she said."I just wished there was a way we could know if he did it when he says he did it because he's just not all there. Only he knows and God knows," said Munguia.The victim's sister, Mary Salinas, suspected Guzman since the child's death, but Houston police never charged him, not even after Guzman reportedly confessed five years after the killing."He'd been arrested several times.  There was never any warrant issued from Texas," said Lt. Kate Novitsky of the Gallatin Police Department.Gallatin police said Guzman admitted on Tuesday to the 1983 homicide and won't fight extradition."I feel like they should have done more. I'm a mother, and if I lose one of my sons, I would want justice," said Munguia.

27 years later, man charged with slaying 11-year-old Houston boy

Associated Press
Posted on October 6, 2010 at 8:27 AM

HOUSTON -- Police have charged a man with murder in the 1983 death of an 11-year-old Houston boy.

Houston police say they arrested 47-year-old Raymond Yucatan Guzman on Tuesday in Gallatin, Tenn., and he confessed.

Houston Police Homicide Division Sgt. P.C. Motard reported that Paul Salinas was last seen with Guzman on Oct. 26, 1983, after coming home from school. The pair were spotted walking along a railroad right-of-way north of the boy’s home.

The 11-year-old’s body was later found inside a boxcar. He had been struck in the head with a large, chunk of concrete.

Police initially identified Guzman as a suspect. Guzman blamed someone else.

The Houston Chronicle reports that no one was previously charged with the crime.

Guzman could not be reached for comment.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/27-years-later-man-charged-with-slaying-Texas-boy-104409743.html

HPD's cold case squad works to bring families justice
These five don't forget - Cold case squad digs deep into long-unsolved murders, bringing relief to families of victims

JAMES PINKERTON, HOUSTON CHRONICLE | November 22, 2010

Excerpt:

Case never filed

Sometimes a cold case yields surprising results, such as the September arrest of a Houston man who had confessed 22 years ago to killing an 11-year-old boy.

Sifting through the file of the 1983 death of Paul Salinas Jr., cold case detective Sgt. Paul Motard found a confession given by the original suspect in 1988. Police records indicate the detective took the case to local prosecutors, who now acknowledge they approved charges but never filed a murder case against Raymond Yucatan Guzman.

"Obviously, somebody dropped the ball," Kleczynski said. "But the fact remains, when you open up these old cases, you never know what you'll find in them. We can only do what we can do once we open the case."

Read More:  http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/HPD-s-cold-case-squad-works-to-bring-families-1712855.php