Hours after Jermaine Gould was fatally shot in his Steelton home, his neighbor’s son made an incriminating comment, according to police.
“They will know not to [expletive] with his family,” Daniel Caraballo, a 32-year-old convicted felon, told his girlfriend, according to court records.
Caraballo, who was on parole for trying to kill his brother in 2014, now has been charged in Gould’s June 25 death in the 700 block of South Second Street. Court records said Caraballos’ mother lived next door to Gould and had a history of calling the police to complain of loud music or noise.
Caraballo was paroled from prison on April 28, less than two months before Gould’s killing, according to Department of Corrections spokeswoman Maria Bivens. Caraballo had since been living in a halfway house in West Hanover Township. He could have remained in prison for the assault against his brother for 16 years, but was released after seven years.
On July 6, Mechanicsburg police arrested Caraballo on charges of public drunkenness and trespassing. That violated his parole, so Caraballo was returned to prison Aug. 17, and as of Tuesday was being held at SCI Dallas.
The affidavit filed by Steelton police gave the following account of the homicide:
Steelton police found Gould in his home with two gunshot wounds around 6:45 p.m. He was rushed to Harrisburg Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A man who lived down the street from Gould told investigators he was outside working on his car when he heard gunshots. He looked down the block and saw a man running south toward the RISE medical marijuana dispensary.
Surveillance cameras captured a man park a silver Jeep Patriot in the dispensary’s parking lot before the shooting, then quickly leave the scene afterward. Police noticed the Jeep had damage on the bottom of the driver’s side door.
Additional camera footage showed the Jeep speeding east after the shooting, police said. They later found a Jeep Patriot with identical damage parked at Caraballo’s other brother’s home in Elizabethtown.
One of the homicide investigators said the man in the videos appeared to be either Daniel Caraballo or his brother Michael — both with whom police are familiar.
Surveillance cameras from Caraballo’s halfway house showed him returning the day after the homicide wearing the same clothes as the man seen running away from the shooting scene in Steelton.
When police showed Caraballo still photos of the surveillance footage, he became angry and accused the officers of doctoring the images. He said he was working and spending time with his girlfriend at her Hummelstown home the day of the homicide, and never went to Steelton.
Caraballo’s girlfriend told police he showed up at her home the day of the homicide while she was wasn’t there. When she arrived, she found Caraballo wearing her capri pants and maternity shirt because he had “lost” his clothes. She also said Caraballo asked her to lie about him being with her all night the day of the homicide.
Laughing, Caraballo reportedly told his girlfriend, “they they will know now not to [expletive] with his family or his mom,” according to court documents.
Caraballo is charged with homicide, carrying a firearm without a license, former felon not to possess a firearm, and firing a firearm into an occupied structure. He is incarcerated at a state correctional facility on unrelated charges.
Caraballo is not allowed to own a gun because he shot his brother twice in the chest May 19, 2012, during an argument at a family gathering. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder and was sentenced to 8 to 16 years in state prison.
READ MORE: Woman initially charged in 2020 Steelton homicide pleads guilty to lesser crimes
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