Investigators believe a 25-year-old Spur man suspected in a deadly shooting last month in west Lubbock targeted a 61-year-old registered sex offender to satisfy a desire to kill.
Members of the Lubbock police department on Thursday, Aug. 13, arrested Joseph Barrera in Spur on a murder charge in connection to the July 15 shooting death of Richard Paul.
He was booked Friday into the Lubbock County Detention Center.
Murder carries a punishment of five years to life in prison.
Investigating a deadly shooting in west Lubbock
Barrera's arrest stems from a Lubbock Metropolitan Special Crimes Unit investigation that began after officers responded about 11:08 p.m. July 15 to the 5000 block of 38th Street for a report of shots fired.
Responding officers found Paul suffering from a gunshot wound. Medical
personnel pronounced him dead at the scene.
Investigators found a spent 9mm shell casing at the scene.
Paul's mother told investigators that before the shooting, she answered a knock at her front door and encountered a man who asked for her son.
The woman described the man as white with an average build and identified himself as "Joe Biden," the warrant states.
She said she called after her son who went to the door and the man shot her son in the head in front of her before running away.
The shooting was also caught on a neighbor's security camera.
The video showed the shooter arriving at Paul's home in a motorized scooter and walked to the front door.
A resident from the home who investigators believe was Paul's mother could be seen opening the front door. A short time later, Paul is seen coming to the door and standing on the porch before a gunshot erupts.
Paul is seen falling to the ground and the shooter leaves on the motorized scooter.
Barrera, who is Black, was identified as a suspect in the case after investigators received Crime Line tips and spoke to witnesses who told them that Barrera admitted to killing Paul.
About a week after the shooting, investigators received anonymous tips that Barrera's mother had told other people that her son was Paul's killer, according to a probable cause affidavit.
One caller reportedly said that Barrera's mother told them Paul was shot in the face, a detail that was not disclosed to the public, the warrant states.
The tipster's message included information that Barrera was at his grandfather's residence in Spur.
Investigators spoke with Barrera's mother who reportedly said that she used to be friends with Paul, who lived a block away from her.
However, the woman, who had young children, told investigators that the friendship ended when she learned he was a registered sex offender.
According to the state's sex offender registry, Paul was convicted in 1995 of sexual assault involving a 4-year-old girl and of aggravated sexual assault three years later involving a 12-year-old girl.
Detectives would later find messages the woman sent Paul telling him they could not be friends. Paul told the woman that he was done time for his crimes, wished her well and would leave her alone, the warrant states.
Barrera's mother told detectives that at the time of the shooting, she, her youngest daughter and her father were in Tulsa, Oklahoma and they returned to Lubbock on July 18.
She said her son came to Lubbock with her father and was staying with her oldest daughter while they were out of town.
Investigators also spoke with a friend of Barrera's who said Barrera had several times in the past said he wanted to "catch a body," a term the investigator believed referred to murder.
She told investigators that Barrera gave the gun to another person.
Another witness told investigators that he'd seen Barrera with a 9mm pistol before the shooting and that after Barrera returned to Spur, he reportedly admitted to taking a life, the warrant states.
The witness told investigators that he and Barrera listened to a recording Barrera's mother made of her conversation with Paul's mother after the shooting.
Paul's mother reportedly could be heard describing the shooter as a white man and Barrera's mother responded that the shooter couldn't have been her son, the warrant states.
However, the witness told investigators that after hearing that part of the conversation Barrera told him that his hair was blond.
Paul's mother confirmed the conversation to investigators, the warrant states.
Meanwhile, Barrera's mother told detectives that after speaking with Paul's mother, she didn't believe her son was the shooter.
On Aug. 10, investigators spoke with Barrera in Spur and encountered him as he was about to ride off in a motorized scooter, which appeared to have originally been black but had been recently covered with red paint, the warrant states.
During the interview, Barrera reportedly admitted he was in Lubbock at the time of the shooting to babysit his sister because his mother took his grandfather out of town for a medical procedure.
Barrera reportedly admitted to knowing Paul but denied any involvement in the shooting and ended the interview.
Two days later, investigators spoke to a third witness who also recounted Barrera's desire to "catch a body," the affidavit states.
The witness told investigators that Barrera told him he went to Lubbock to babysit for his mother but admitted that he really went to kill a child molester who lived in the neighborhood.
The witness said Barrera described going to Paul's home on his scooter and that he dressed in all black clothing. He recounted the same sequence of events as documented in the security camera video.
He said Barrera told him he shot Paul on the front porch after telling him that it was his last breath.
The witness said Barrera tried to sell his scooter after the shooting and painted it a different color.
Detectives presented the case to the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office and obtained a warrant for Barrera's arrest.
He remains held at the Lubbock County Detention Center.
His bond is set at $250,000.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Witnesses: Murder suspect went to Lubbock to 'kill a child molester'
