In July 1998, Jose DeJesus was convicted of first-degree murder for the 1997 shooting of 26-year-old Carlos Martinez.

The evidence adduced at trial established that DeJesus and a man known as “Capone” had an on-going dispute in June of 1997. On June 19, 1997, Capone and several acquaintances allegedly opened fire with firearms on DeJesus’s house in Philadelphia.

Sometime before 8:00 p.m. on June 20, 1997, DeJesus noticed a man, who apparently looked very much like Capone and was wearing a bandana on his head, driving a new, blue Toyota Corolla that DeJesus knew to be owned by Capone in and around DeJesus’s neighborhood.

At around 8:00 p.m., after having observed the Toyota driving in his neighborhood, DeJesus entered a light-colored station wagon parked in front of his house and exited the car carrying an AK-47 assault rifle.

DeJesus then went into an abandoned house at 2913 Palethorp and ascended to the roof of the building. About a minute later, the Toyota Corolla rounded the corner of Cambria and Palethorp Streets and began traveling on Palethorp, past the abandoned building.

Upon seeing the car, DeJesus opened fire on the vehicle and its driver, strafing the rifle from side to side and spraying bullets up and down Palethorp Street.

Unbeknownst to DeJesus, Capone was not in the Toyota Corolla, but rather, the car was being driven by Carlos Martinez, to whom Capone had apparently sold the car that very day.

Six of DeJesus’s shots shattered the car’s windows, and one shot struck Martinez in the back. Martinez eventually died from the wound. 

After being shot in the back, Martinez attempted to exit the car through the driver’s side window but became too weak and eventually lost consciousness, so that his body was slung partially out of the window with his head almost touching the ground.

Philadelphia police officers who responded to a radio call regarding the shooting found Martinez lying on the ground next to the car and bleeding heavily from the chest.

Police transported Martinez to Temple University Hospital in a police cruiser, but Martinez was pronounced dead within a half hour of arriving at the hospital.

An autopsy revealed that a bullet struck Martinez in the back, traveled through his kidney, spleen, stomach, liver, and inferior vena cava, and exited under his ribs on the right side of his abdomen. The cause of death was determined to be the massive bleeding from the wound to the inferior vena cava.

While DeJesus was firing, a man who had been washing his car nearby heard the shots and, thinking that the sound was that of firecrackers, began walking toward the noise.

Upon seeing that DeJesus was firing a rifle onto the street, the man turned and began running in the opposite direction but was struck by one bullet in his left calf, two bullets in his left buttock, and one bullet on the left side of his head. He continued running towards Cambria Street even after being shot.

At the same time, a fifteen-year-old boy was riding his off-road motorcycle on the street in front of the residence and carrying a three-year-old boy as a passenger. When the older boy heard the gunshots, he was startled and fell while still seated on the bike and holding the child.

He covered the child until the gunshots stopped, but when the older boy later returned the child to his mother, it was discovered that the youngster had suffered a gunshot wound to his left knee and one to his left foot. Both the man at the car wash and the young boy survived their wounds.

The man was treated at the hospital for four gunshot wounds, and doctors removed the bullet from his head while leaving the other bullets for fear of complications. He remained in the hospital for three days. The young boy was treated at the hospital for two gunshot wounds and remained there for three weeks.

Following the shooting, the police recovered sixteen 7.62 x 39 mm cartridge casings from the area in front of the home, all of which were determined to have been fired from an AK-47 rifle. In addition, six bullet holes were discovered in the Toyota Corolla that had been driven by Carlos Martinez -- three in the driver’s side of the front hood of the car and three in the roof.

After evading police custody for approximately three months, DeJesus was arrested on September 23, 1997, when members of the Philadelphia Police Fugitive Squad surrounded a house where DeJesus had been staying, and detained him there.

Following his arrest, DeJesus was transported to the police station, where he gave a statement to police. DeJesus admitted his involvement in the shooting, explaining that Capone had shot at his house the day before, and that when he saw the “Capone wagon,” he “lit it up” because he thought Capone “must be coming back again.”