A 20-year-old Nashville man already on probation for a violent felony was booked into the Davidson County Sheriff's Office Downtown Detention Center on Wednesday, facing two counts of criminal homicide connected to a gun deal that erupted into gunfire behind an Antioch gas station in May. Edgar Saul Beltran Jr. now faces three felony charges in all, and records show he was arrested only after a multi-state manhunt ended with his capture at the U.S.-Mexico border.
A Gun Deal That Turned Into a Shootout
According to FOX 17, Beltran faces one criminal homicide charge with a $250,000 bond and a second with a $500,000 bond, along with a felony probation violation charge carrying no bond at all. He is being held at maximum security. The case traces back to approximately 7 p.m. on May 17, when occupants of a Ford Fusion and a Honda Accord exchanged gunfire in the rear parking lot of a Shell gas station at 1110 Bell Road in Antioch, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department. A nearby business sustained nearly a dozen bullet holes during the exchange.
Police say 19-year-old Alijzhia Hatcher was killed after the deal collapsed into gunfire, and a second fatality was identified as 20-year-old Aldo Sosa Arteaga. Metro Nashville Police reported that Beltran drove Arteaga to the Century Farms Emergency Room before fleeing, dropping off the dying man rather than staying at the scene. Investigators initially withheld Arteaga's identity while notifying his family.
A Relative Wounded in the Crossfire
A 19-year-old relative riding in the Ford Fusion with Hatcher was also struck, suffering non-life-threatening gunshot wounds during the crossfire, per the police department's account. That relative managed to drive the Fusion away from the gas station, stopping short of the perimeter near Mountain High Drive before receiving emergency medical care. Hatcher's family later said he had no life insurance and was the father of a one-year-old daughter, according to a GoFundMe campaign launched after his death; he was described as a lifelong Nashville resident educated in the city's schools.
Probation, a Border Bridge, and a Fingerprint Match
Court records show Beltran was serving six years of supervised probation at the time of the shooting, the result of a guilty plea to aggravated assault and felony reckless endangerment tied to an October 2024 arrest, according to FOX 7 Austin. That earlier case originally included charges of attempted criminal homicide and using a firearm during a dangerous felony. Records also show Beltran was previously wanted for criminal homicide and attempted criminal homicide before Wednesday's booking.
The same station reported that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers apprehended Beltran on July 7 as he attempted to walk across the Gateway to the Americas Bridge in Laredo, Texas. Biometric fingerprint verification matched him to an active Nashville homicide warrant, and he was held at the Webb County Jail awaiting extradition to Davidson County. He is now scheduled for a review hearing on Friday.
Two Legal Tracks, Two Different Burdens of Proof
Because Beltran was on probation when the new felony charges were filed, he faces a probation revocation hearing separate from any criminal trial. Under Tennessee Code Annotated § 40-35-311, the state only needs to prove a probation violation by a preponderance of the evidence — a lower bar than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard required for a homicide conviction, according to the Brooks Law Firm. That distinction helps explain why Beltran's probation violation charge carries a $0 bond even as his homicide charges carry six-figure bonds. A single trial judge, not a jury, decides revocation.
If convicted of criminal homicide, Beltran could face significantly different sentencing outcomes depending on the charge. Tennessee law sets first-degree murder penalties ranging from life imprisonment, with or without the possibility of parole, up to the death penalty, while second-degree murder is a Class A felony carrying 15 to 60 years, according to the May McKinney Law Firm.
A Case Amid Nashville's Shifting Crime Trends
The shooting comes even as Nashville has seen homicides fall by nearly 30% in 2025 following several years of triple-digit murder totals, alongside a 5% decline in violent crime across Davidson County, per Metro Nashville Police Department statistics cited by FOX 17 Nashville. Still, the ages of both victims echo a pattern the department documented in late 2024, when young adults between 18 and 34 accounted for over half of the city's homicide victims and firearms were involved in more than 90% of all homicides.
