Bio

Jonathan Bryant Moore was born on April 4, 1974. At the time of the crime in January 1995, he was 20 years old and living in the San Antonio, Texas area. Before the murder, Moore had prior contact with the criminal justice system. Reports state that he had been arrested for criminal trespassing in 1993 and received deferred adjudication. The state also presented evidence that he had been charged with burglary in January 1995. While awaiting trial for capital murder, Moore also attempted to escape from the Bexar County jail twice.

Moore was connected to two other young men involved in the burglary that led to Officer Fabian Dominguez’s death, Paul Cameron and Peter Dowdle. Cameron was 17, and Dowdle was also 17 at the time of the crime. The three were together during the burglary in San Antonio on January 15, 1995.

Murder Story

On January 15, 1995, Jonathan Bryant Moore, Paul Cameron, and Peter Dowdle went to the San Antonio home of William Braden and burglarized it. After leaving with stolen items, the three returned to the house to burglarize it again. Dowdle backed their car into the driveway while Moore and Cameron were involved in the second burglary.

San Antonio police officer Fabian Dominguez was driving home from work before sunrise. He was in his personal vehicle but still wearing his police uniform. When he saw what appeared to be a burglary in progress, he pulled into the driveway and blocked the suspects’ car. Dominguez approached the vehicle with his weapon drawn and repeatedly ordered the men to get out, but they did not comply.

Dominguez took the car keys from Dowdle, who was driving, and then moved toward the passenger side of the car. Moore, who was sitting in the front passenger seat, pulled out a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol and shot Dominguez in the face. Dominguez dropped his gun into the car and fell to the ground. Moore then got out, took the keys, gave them back to Dowdle, grabbed Dominguez’s service weapon, and shot the officer three more times in the head.

After the shooting, Moore and the others left the scene. They later picked up Moore’s girlfriend, Meredith Nichols, and drove to a field near Pipe Creek in Bandera County. There, they disposed of the stolen property and both weapons used in the crime.

The next day, police placed Moore under surveillance as a suspect. Officers later saw him driving with Nichols and tried to stop him after traffic violations. Moore fled, leading police on a high-speed chase that lasted about 20 minutes and ended in Bandera County when he lost control and crashed into two police cars. After his arrest, Moore confessed to the killing and admitted that he could see Dominguez was wearing a police uniform.

Moore was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. His co-defendants were also punished: Peter Dowdle received a 25-year sentence, while Paul Cameron received a life sentence. Moore pursued appeals, but the courts denied relief. The United States Supreme Court refused to stop the execution shortly before it was carried out.

Jonathan Bryant Moore was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas, on January 17, 2007. He was 32 years old. Before his death, he apologized to Fabian Dominguez’s widow and said the killing had been done out of “fear, stupidity and immaturity.” He was pronounced dead at 6:21 p.m.