Police probe death as possible homicide
MUNCIE — City police are investigating the death of 29-year-old Old West End resident Hector Cedillo Jr., an ex-offender, as a possible stabbing.
"It's under investigation; it's an open investigation," Muncie police Sgt. Mike Engle said on Friday. He confirmed that the investigation involved a potential stabbing but declined further comment.
Delaware County Coroner Scott Hahn reported that Cedillo, of 713 W. Charles St., died on Thursday afternoon from injuries related to an incident last Friday night. An autopsy was scheduled for Friday but findings won't be available until Monday, Hahn said.
"I know they did surgery on him and repaired a wound to his heart," the coroner said. "It was some kind of stabbing wound."
The city police department's crime log for last Friday shows a "criminal recklessness" report at 713 W. Charles St. at 9:51 p.m.
The coroner called details of the incident "sketchy."
Ivy Tech spokesperson Kelsey Batten on Friday said Cedillo had graduated in May of this year with a degree in welding. "We are very sorry to hear of the tragic news," she said.
A registered sex offender, Cedillo was profiled in a 2013 Star Press article headlined, "Convicted sex offender says he is turning his life around."
He told The Star Press he had no father figure in his life, he was two years old when he moved from Texas to Huntington, Ind., with his indigent mother, he was incorrigible as a youth, he had been locked up in prisons and juvenile facilities all over Indiana, and that he served time for only a portion of what he had actually committed.
In the summer of 2013, he was working at a fast food restaurant and had just finished his first semester at Ivy Tech Community College with a 3.0 GPA.
Cedillo was sent to prison in 2005 for his plea of guilty to sexual misconduct with a minor. The court cited as aggravating factors Cedillo's two prior felonies and his extensive juvenile history: "the defendant has been in the court system since 1995 and in the juvenile department many times and found a delinquent." One of the prior felonies was auto theft.
In 2013, Cedillo told The Star Press that he didn't feel like he belonged on the sex offender registry. "Hell no, I don't" … "because the whole situation in my case is a lot different, because I didn't go out there and rape or touch a kid or whatnot."
Cedillo was convicted of auto theft a decade ago. At the time of the car theft, he was living with his 15-year-old girlfriend. He said the girl's parents had OK'd their living arrangement.
It's "hard for a felon to come out and be successful" "because you've already got three strikes against you," he told The Star Press. "But you've got to move on. You can''t live in the past."
Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834.