In January of 2004, a 23-year-old man was gunned down in front of a liquor store in Los Angeles. Police believed it was a gang-related shooting, but they were never able to find the murderer, and the case went cold.
Now, seven years later, the L.A.P.D. has finally solved the case . . . almost entirely by accident.
They arrested 25-year-old Anthony Garcia for driving with a suspended license. When he was being booked, the cops followed their standard procedure and took photographs of all his tattoos.
A homicide investigator named Kevin Lloyd was flipping through the book of tattoos, and he saw Garcia's.
And he realized that Garcia was basically confessing to the liquor store murder . . . because he had THE ENTIRE CRIME SCENE tattooed on his chest.
It even had tiny details: Christmas lights from the liquor store roof . . . the victim's body on the ground just like the cops had found it . . . a street sign . . . and an image of a helicopter shooting the victim, which was a reference to Garcia's nickname, Chopper.
In the tattoo, the victim was drawn like Mr. Peanut . . . and apparently in gang terms, someone from a rival gang is called a "peanut."
Garcia was arrested and put in a cell with an undercover cop. The cop got him talking, and Garcia confessed to the murder. He's looking at 65 years to life in prison.
