Suspect accused of killing father looking at Christmas lights with family in Phoenix

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- A man is accused of killing a father who was looking at Christmas lights with his family earlier this month in Phoenix. Police say 19-year-old Isaish Joshua Nash was taken into custody in Mesa on Friday.

On Dec. 8, Phoenix police were called out to a shooting at Sunridge Park near 63rd Avenue and Roosevelt Street. Officers arrived and found a gun, shell casings, a rifle, a cell phone, and blood in a cul-de-sac on McKinley Street, just south of the park. Other officers went to a home near 67th Avenue and Van Buren Street, where a woman called 911 and told them her boyfriend, 28-year-old Eduardo Uzueta, had been shot. Uzueta was taken to the hospital, where he later died.

Uzueta’s girlfriend reportedly told officers that she, Uzueta, and their two young kids were driving around looking at Christmas lights when they passed by a car with several men standing around it. Court documents say Uzueta got out of the car to smoke, but a fight broke out between the group and Uzueta. Investigators said Uzueta’s girlfriend said she heard several gunshots, then couldn’t see her boyfriend. Uzueta then walked back to the car and told his girlfriend he got shot, according to court documents. They then drove to a family member’s home and called 911. Uzueta’s girlfriend said they didn’t know who the men were and Uzueta “did nothing to provoke them,” court paperwork says.

On Friday, police arrested four men involved in the fight, including Nash, after searching the phone left at the crime scene. Text messages between the group showed they planned to rob someone and steal their car, investigators said. Two of the men refused to speak to police, but one of the men told police Nash pistol whipped Uzueta and then shot him several times, court documents say. He also reportedly told police Nash and a friend was trying to rob Uzueta before the shooting.

Nash was booked on one count of first-degree murder and one count of armed robbery.

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