FBI guns down 14-year-old boy’s teen killer, authorities crack 33-year-old cold case

In California, a murder case that lasted for decades has finally been closed. Authorities now know that a teenager who later left the state killed 14-year-old Raymond Ojeda in 1991.

Police were able to identify the killer, who was 15 years old at the time of the crime, but he was able to get away with it. The cold case was reopened by Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office investigators decades later.

“DNA analysis confirmed they were the same person. Aguilar had been living in Ohio under the [last] name Mulato for several years,” the District Attorney’s office stated.
After conducting a thorough investigation, they learned that the alleged murderer had changed his identity and was residing in Ohio under the name Gerardo Mulato. DNA testing verified that this person was, in fact, the same one who killed Ojeda.

Based purely on instinct, SCCDAO detective John Cary looked up Aguilar’s family’s background. His investigation showed that Mulato was the last name of Aguilar’s sister. Curious, Cary looked into the Mulato family more and found pictures of a man in Forest Park, Ohio, online who looked a lot like the suspect. This person, identified as “Gerardo Mulato,” lived in a Cincinnati suburb.

After leaving California, the killer carried on with his illegal activities. While being looked into for drug trafficking, he had a deadly run-in with FBI agents in 2007. During a confrontation, the person was shot and killed by an FBI agent.

Going by the name “Mulato,” Springfield, Ohio law enforcement officials disclosed that he was taken into custody in 2004 for an alleged baseball bat assault.

The conclusion of this lengthy 33-year cold case gives the young victim a sense of justice and closure for Ojeda’s family.

“It’s never too late to identify a killer,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen stated. “People may forget. But victims’ families and my office do not.”