It was a man’s alleged carelessness that exposed his ruthlessness, and now he’s spending the rest of his life behind bars for murdering a father in front of his daughter.

Miguel Vasquez took his 10-year-old daughter out for a night of fun at a Houston Dave & Buster’s on Easter Sunday 2021. Vazquez, 37, and his daughter were walking to the car when a man attempted to rob them, Houston police said. An arrest affidavit obtained by The Associated Press said the suspect demanded Vasquez’s watch, putting him into a chokehold. The suspect then shot Vasquez before fleeing without anything. The girl was not injured. Vasquez was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Detectives recovered a 9 mm cartridge at the scene.

The random murder initially stumped investigators. A week after the crime, they released a composite sketch of the suspect and surveillance video of the car the suspect drove away in. What they didn’t know at the time was the suspect had already been arrested in another crime and they were in possession of the murder weapon. Four days after Vazquez’s murder, police were called to a home after a 3-year-old boy had grabbed a gun, which was allegedly left on top of a bathroom by his father, and accidentally shot himself.

A jury convicted Nicholas Thomas, top, of murder in the shooting death of Miguel Vasquez, who was killed in front of his daughter outside a Houston Dave & Buster’s.