SJ Cold Case Murder Suspect Killed By FBI In 2007: DA

SAN JOSE, CA — The person responsible for killing a San Jose teen and disappearing in 1991 has been identified as a man who later died during a 2007 shootout with the FBI in Ohio, according to the district attorney's office.

The DA's office said its cold case unit was following "an investigator's hunch" while reviewing the 33-year-old case, which led them to a man living under a different name.

The investigation began on Sept. 28, 1991, when prosecutors allege Gerardo Aguilar, then 15, shot and killed Raymond Ojeda, 14, during a "gang-related confrontation" in Foxdale Loop. The authorities issued an arrest warrant for Aguilar but he was never found — until now.

Earlier this year, cold case investigators began looking into an Ohio man living under the name Gerardo Mulato. Officials said a background search revealed a man who looked similar to an adult Aguilar and had been living outside Cincinnati for several years after the killing. Further records showed a 2004 arrest for an assault with a baseball bat near Springfield, and a DNA analysis confirmed Mulato and Aguilar were, in fact, the same person.

Further digging revealed Aguilar was under investigation for alleged drug trafficking when he saw an FBI agent put a tracking device on his car in 2007. Prosecutors said he believed the agent was a thief and pulled out a gun, and the agent fatally shot him.

The DA's office welcomed the break in the case as closure for the boy's family more than three decades later.

"It's never too late to identify a killer," District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. "People may forget. But victims' families and my office do not."

According to the district attorney's office, its investigators have solved 20 homicide and 15 sexual assault cold cases since 2018.