ODESSA, Texas — The Odessa Police Department held a press conference Thursday about an update on a cold case from 2019.
On November 21, 2019, OPD responded to a gunshot victim in the 1700 block of Dotsy Avenue where they found Brandon Swinney shot to death near his house.
According to police, Swinney had just arrived home with his young son from baseball practice.
When Swinney got out of his truck he went to the side entrance of his house and his son went towards the front.
“What Brandon did not know was that a man waited in the shadows next to the house,” OPD said in a statement. “When Brandon approached, the man committed the cold and cowardly act of shooting Brandon in front of his son. Luckily, the little boy was able to run away to safety.”
Over the next four years, OPD Detectives went through leads and searched for answers with little progress.
That all changed with major advancements in forensic network signal technology. Using cutting edge forensic science and advanced analytic techniques, the homicide team developed a lead into the killer’s identity. This lead coupled with the surveillance footage, evidence from the crime scene and statements gathered over the past four years has finally brought police to today.
An arrest warrant for who they believe is the killer of Swinney has been issued: 55-year-old Roman Aguilar Alvarado Jr.
Alvarado is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence in the Federal Bureau of Prisons for unrelated drug charges.
According to an arrest affidavit, in October of 2020, a person was interviewed by investigators. The person said that she and her common-law husband Roman Alvarado Jr. were acquaintances of Brandon Swinney.
The woman told investigators that she had a sexual affair with Swinney in Feb. 2019 while Alvarado was in custody.
A few weeks later, Alvarado was interviewed by investigators. He said a friend had told him about the affair with Swinney. He then said he went to Swinney’s residence to confront him in March of 2019, but was unable to reach Swinney. This was documented on a doorbell camera video on March 25th. Alvarado said that was the last time he went to Swinney’s residence. Alvarado also said that the shooter in the surveillance video “didn’t look like me”.
In 2023, OPD obtained historical electronic evidence that Alvarado was within 5 meters of the crime scene on Nov. 21, 2019 between the hours of 7:55 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., which was the time frame that the shooter was seen on video surveillance.
The electronic evidence also showed that Alvarado went to a close family member’s house immediately after the shooting, according to the affidavit.
On March 19, 2024, OPD detectives went to the Federal Correctional Insititution Cumberland in Cumberland, Maryland where Alvarado was incarcerated.
Alvarado made statements that contradicted previous statements he made to detectives. He said he had gone to the residence to confront Swinney about having an affair and that he never went to the house again.
When confronted with the electronic evidence that he was present at Swinney’s residence during the murder, Alvarado denied killing Swinney, but couldn’t explain why he was 5 meters away from the crime scene.
Alvarado said “so it has to be either me or REDACTED”. According to police the video surveillance showed that the shooter clearly wasn’t the redacted name, to which Alvarado agreed she was not the shooter on the video.
Alvarado has been charged with first degree murder.
NewsWest 9 will continue to cover this story as we learn more.