Houston: Courts docs allege man killed 19-year-old girlfriend to stop her from testifying against him
The Brief
Breandrea Wiley went missing in early 2022, and officials assumed that she is deceased.
John Roman has since been charged with Wiley's presumed death.
Court documents claim Roman and Wiley were in a relationship, and he killed her to prevent her from testifying in his separate trial.
Roman has since been sentenced in that case.
HOUSTON - A man has been charged with the presumed death of a woman who went missing in Houston in 2022. Court documents claim the two were in a relationship, and officials believe the suspect killed the victim to prevent her from testifying against him.
What we know
According to police, 19-year-old Breandrea Wiley was last seen on January 12, 2022. She was last seen at her apartment complex on West Little York Road, between Hollister Street and Guhn Road.
Officials believe that Wiley was killed, but her remains have never been found.
On Friday, police announced that 40-year-old John Alberto Roman was charged with capital murder in this case.
Roman is already in prison for aggravated robbery.
RELATED: Man charged with capital murder in 19-year-old's 2022 disappearance
What you can do
Anyone with information on this case is asked to call one of the following agencies:
HPD Homicide Division: 713-308-3600
Crime Stoppers: 713-222-TIPS (8477)
The backstory
According to documents from the Harris County District Clerk's Office, John Roman and Breandrea Wiley were in a relationship. The documents say the two formed a relationship in 2020 when they lived in Colombus, Texas.
According to a Houston police detective, Wiley and Roman were involved in an aggravated robbery in Columbus in 2020. Allegedly, Wiley met with the robbery victim and got into his car. Roman then got into the car, then he shot and tased the victim during the robbery.
Documents say Wiley confessed to her part in the robbery in a statement to Columbus police, and claimed that Roman threatened her to not tell police. Roman was later arrested by Columbus police, then released on bond while waiting for his trial.
Wiley and Roman moved to Houston in 2021. They lived in an apartment on West Little York, where Wiley was last seen.
Timeline
Court documents say Breandrea Wiley and John Roman were together on the afternoon of January 12, 2022, the day Wiley was last seen.
Phone records suggest the two were together after Wiley clocked out of work at about 3 p.m.
A detective allegedly reviewed a Facebook Messenger conversation between Wiley and her sister. The last message was sent at 3:20 p.m.
At 3:47 p.m., Wiley picked up a prescription from a pharmacy. Phone records suggest the couple were together at the time.
The couple returned to their apartment complex at 3:55 p.m., based on phone records. Surveillance video allegedly shows Roman going towards the apartment while Wiley sat in the Jeep they arrived in.
Between 4:06 and 4:19 p.m., Roman allegedly saved screenshots of the messages between Wiley and her sister. Meanwhile, Wiley was texting and calling her father. The detective spoke with her dad about that conversation, and he allegedly said she was "upset and crying."
At 4:20 p.m., video reportedly shows Roman coming back to the Jeep. At that time, Wiley's phone records show that she was talking to her brother. According to court documents, the brother told the detective that Wiley was asking him to pick her up, but Roman took the phone and hung up.
Following a conversation between Roman and Wiley, which was allegedly seen in the camera footage, they left the apartment complex in the Jeep at 4:56 p.m. Court documents say their cell phones pinged them back at the pharmacy.
At 5:46 p.m., video reportedly shows Roman coming back to the apartment complex by himself.
Wiley's phone reportedly received texts from her father at 6:28 and 6:47 p.m. The phone was reportedly back at the apartment at the time, and someone allegedly texted Wiley's father back on her phone.
Between the time Roman came back to the apartment and 6:43 a.m. the next morning, according to the court documents, Roman's phone received screenshots of Wiley's phone information, lease information, passwords and other documents.
Records allegedly showed that Wiley's phone had been at least near the apartment complex and Roman's workplace since January 12.
Dig deeper
On January 20, 2022, police went to the home where John Roman's family lived. Allegedly, his Jeep was in the driveway with a bleach bottle propping the rear window open. Court documents also say that a large bleach stain was seen on the driveway in Google Street View at that time.
On January 22, Roman allegedly had the furniture in the apartment moved out. He allegedly took a friend's truck and moved the furniture out with other people's help. Before taking the car, Roman reportedly loaded it with a tarp of items "that smelled like bleach," according to court documents.
In February 2022, Roman was arrested at his job and his Jeep was seized. While looking through the Jeep, investigators allegedly noticed a lot of carpeting that was removed from the inside of the vehicle. Investigators also detected possible signs of blood and found some of Breandrea Wiley's items in the Jeep's center console.
Based on the evidence from the Jeep, plus Roman using his friend's car, and records reportedly showing that he rented another car days after Wiley's disappearance, the police detective believes Roman used the other vehicles because his Jeep looked too suspicious.
It's also believed that the bleach-smelling tarp contained the carpeting that was removed from Roman's Jeep, and it was put into his friend's car because he didn't want to leave evidence in the rental car.
According to court documents, the trial for Roman's 2020 robbery case was scheduled for early 2022, and Wiley was summoned to testify. So it's believed that Roman killed Wiley to stop her from testifying against him.
However, the documents say Roman has since been convicted in the robbery case. He has reportedly been sentenced to 99 years in prison.
The other side
According to court documents, detectives spoke with John Roman twice about this case.
The first interview was on February 2, 2022, the day he was arrested in Houston. That interview focused on him taking his friend's truck, then Roman allegedly ended the interview.
Detectives interviewed Roman again on February 18.
During that interview, he allegedly said that Breandrea Wiley had left, but he couldn't answer when she left or where she could've gone. He also stated that he got the rental car because his Jeep was damaged.
Documents say Roman also claimed the bleach-smelling tarp was full of vacuum cleaners after he cleaned up cat litter in his mother's house.
On April 20, 2025, the police detective over the case and a police sergeant went to the prison where Roman is being held for another interview. He allegedly refused to speak about the case.
The Source
Information in this report is provided by previous FOX 26 reporting and records from the Harris County District Clerk's Office.
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