A Texas maniac is behind bars after allegedly breaking into an elderly convenience store owner’s home, viciously stabbing him to death with a screwdriver and making off with about $3,000 from his safe.
Anthony Cerda, 24, was arrested Friday and hit with a capital murder charge for fatally butchering 90-year-old Francisco Chura as he slept in his Houston home last summer, Houston police said.
Cerda busted into the nonagenarian’s home — attached to the local retail store he had owned for decades — by yanking an air-conditioning unit from a back window on Aug. 20, 2025, according to court documents obtained by Law & Crime.
He then allegedly jumped on the senior, repeatedly punched him and stabbed him in the stomach.
Chura told police – who discovered his blood-soaked bed sheets – he awoke during the assault and played dead until his attacker took off, then hid in the bathroom until sunrise before making a desperate dash to a neighbor’s house for help, the court documents showed.
A bent and bloodied screwdriver was also allegedly found at the scene, along with a safe left wide open with thousands in cash missing.
The victim was rushed to a local hospital but died from his injuries on Sept. 7, 2025, police said.
“Everybody knew him. Everybody grew up with him,” a devastated neighbor told KTRK of the victim.
“Everybody was surprised when that happened.”
Police first spoke with Cerda two months after the killing when they spotted him hiding in a crawl space under his aunt’s home. She told investigators her homeless nephew had been in Chura’s store a day or so before the homicide, adding that the victim sometimes loaned him money.
One witness told cops the victim handed Cerda money during one encounter inside the local shop, but he allegedly returned demanding more cash before Chura refused and kicked him out, court docs said.
The alleged killer was finally arrested after DNA from both him and the victim was found on the alleged murder weapon.
Cerda was already locked up in Harris County Jail on an unrelated charge when he was busted.
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