Affidavit: McGregor shooter's 8-year-old son saw three killings, video captured two more

Surveillance video shows the man fatally shoot a neighbor the next morning as she was taking out the trash, then fatally shoot the neighbor’s adult daughter, investigators reported.

The lead investigator, Texas Ranger Jim Hatfield Jr., filed the affidavits Wednesday in Waco’s 54th State District Court, in support of two new capital murder charges against the suspect, Nicolas Jaimes-Hernandez, 35, of McGregor. A McGregor police officer responding to a report of gunfire that morning shot the suspect, and he remains hospitalized in custody under guard of McLennan County Sheriff’s Office personnel, authorities said. He had been held on an assault charge since the day of his arrest.

Jaimes-Hernandez’s 8-year-old son saw the shootings the night of Sept. 28, and told interviewers at the Advocacy Center for Crime Victims and Children in Waco that his father was still holding the gun the next morning, according to an affidavit.

Forensic interviews were conducted with all three children who were in the home at 903 S. Monroe St. the night their mother, Monica Delgado, 38, of McGregor, and their two half-siblings, Miguel Avila, 15, and Natallie Avila, 14, were killed.

Investigators learned Jaimes-Hernandez told his two youngest children to go into a closet and that they were later sent to sleep, the affidavit says.

One of the capital murder warrants filed Wednesday charges Jaimes-Hernandez in the killings of Delgado and her two children from a previous relationship. The other warrant charges Jaimes-Hernandez in the killing of two neighbors, Lorena “Lori” Aviles, 47, and her daughter, Natalie Aviles, 20. Lori Aviles was found dead outside her home at 901 S. Monroe St., and Natalie Aviles was found dead in the kitchen of the home they shared with Lori Aviles' teenage sons, Ezra and Zion Aviles.

Family members have said Ezra and Zion left for school minutes before their mother and sister were killed.

Surveillance video shows Lori Aviles taking a bag of trash out to a trash can between her home and Jaimes-Hernandez’s home at 7:35 a.m., an affidavit says. Jaimes-Hernandez could then be seen shooting toward the front door of Lori Aviles' home about 7:36 a.m., while she is on the ground by the trash can, the affidavit says.

Jaimes-Hernandez then walked toward his own residence with a light colored or gray pistol in his hand, the affidavit says.

In an image at 7:42 a.m., he can be seen at the front door of Lori Aviles’ home, and the gray pickup McGregor officers saw him driving could be seen in front of her home, the affidavit says. He can be seen checking the front door of Lori Aviles’ home before walking away, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit also confirms police saw Jaimes-Hernandez shoot twice at a person on the second floor balcony of a home in the 800 block of South Monroe. Officers said he fired out of the passenger side window of a gray pickup truck he drove away from the scene, the affidavit says.

Crime scene technicians recovered several shell casings from 903 S. Monroe and compared them to casings test-fired from the pistol Jaimes-Hernandez held when arrested, the affidavit says.