Investigators said forensic findings and changing accounts undermined an early claim that the 16-year-old had shot himself.
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — The shooting death of a 16-year-old that was initially described as self-inflicted became a homicide investigation after detectives said forensic evidence did not support that explanation, according to court documents reported by ABC13.
Jose Gregorio Blanco Moreno, 21, has been charged with murder in the death of Jhowel Rafael Hernandez Castro. Blanco Moreno was arrested Aug. 12 and booked into the Harris County Jail, according to court records. The charge followed an investigation that began more than two weeks earlier at an apartment on Ella Boulevard near Kuykendahl, where deputies found Hernandez Castro unresponsive with a gunshot wound.
Deputies were called to the apartment on the afternoon of July 27. Investigators said Blanco Moreno lived there with four other people, and Hernandez Castro was the cousin of a person who was dating Blanco Moreno. Court documents reviewed by ABC13 describe investigators examining both the physical evidence and statements made after the shooting as they sought to determine how the teenager was wounded.
A search warrant obtained by the television station said Blanco Moreno gave detectives different versions of what had happened. He first told investigators that he did not hear the gunshot and was awakened by Hernandez Castro. He later said the gunshot itself woke him and that he got up to find the teenager holding his gun. Authorities have not publicly established through the cited records why the accounts changed.
Blanco Moreno also told investigators that he woke a roommate and attempted CPR before unloading the firearm and placing it in a kitchen cabinet, according to the warrant. Detectives then compared those statements with evidence collected in the investigation. Authorities said they did not find gunshot residue on Hernandez Castro’s body and determined that the shot had been fired from long range.
The trajectory of the bullet also became an important part of the case. During Blanco Moreno’s Aug. 13 probable cause hearing, a hearing officer said the angle of the bullet made a self-inflicted shooting essentially impossible. The statement reflected the evidence presented for the limited purpose of determining probable cause and was not a finding of guilt.
The findings marked a significant shift in how authorities viewed the teenager’s death. Rather than treating the shooting as an apparent suicide based on the initial account, investigators developed evidence that they said pointed to a homicide. Court records cited in the report do not describe a publicly established motive, and no motive should be inferred from the murder charge or from the relationship among the people who were at the apartment.
Blanco Moreno remains accused, and the murder charge has not been proven in court. The available records do not establish a final account of what happened inside the apartment before Hernandez Castro was shot. The investigation and subsequent court proceedings will determine how prosecutors seek to prove the allegation and how the defense responds to the evidence.
The case remains pending in Harris County following Blanco Moreno’s arrest. Authorities have not publicly released additional information in the reviewed material resolving the remaining questions about the events immediately before the shooting.
Author note: Last updated August 21, 2026.