The intended target had moved, prosecutors said, before gunfire struck a Katy commuter instead.
HOUSTON, Texas — A mistaken address helped send a hired gunman toward the wrong driver in a Houston-area murder-for-hire plot that ended with two men sentenced to life in prison.
Federal prosecutors said Michael Seery’s anger was aimed at a man he believed had an affair with his wife years earlier, but the target no longer lived where Seery thought he did. The error sent the plot toward a different Katy man, who was shot on his way to work but survived. That mistake became a central fact in the case against Seery, 43, of Katy, and Ricardo Obando Jr., 52, of Houston, who were convicted after an eight-day trial and sentenced in April by U.S. District Judge David Hittner.
The trial placed the wrong-address issue before jurors through testimony from the intended target and Seery’s wife. Prosecutors said the affair happened about 12 years before the shooting, when Seery was in prison. They said Seery could not let it go and was still angry in January 2025. The shooting happened a few weeks later, in the early morning of Feb. 4, 2025, on Highway 99. U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei said after the verdict that an innocent victim was ambushed during his daily commute because of “one man’s jealousy and faulty information.”
The victim was driving to work when Obando fired several shots into his vehicle, prosecutors said. The man was hit in the neck, torso and hand. He survived and later testified in federal court. Jurors watched footage from the victim’s in-car camera system that captured the shooting and the 911 call afterward. The recording helped show the violence of the attack, while other evidence focused on what prosecutors said happened before the gunfire. Cell phone records showed Obando had conducted extensive surveillance and had made an earlier failed attempt on the victim, prosecutors said.
The mistaken target did not erase the planning, prosecutors argued. They said Seery hired Obando and paid him through his business to hide the reason for the money. Jurors saw photographs of firearms and firearm parts found at Seery’s home and storage unit. They also saw the 3D printer prosecutors said Seery used to make the weapon and silencer that Obando is believed to have used. The government’s evidence tied together the old grievance, the wrong location, the homemade weapon, the highway shooting and the money trail. Prosecutors said that chain showed a months-long plot, not a chance confrontation on the road.
The jury convicted both men of conspiracy to use interstate facilities to commit murder for hire causing bodily injury, aiding and abetting use of interstate facilities to commit murder for hire causing bodily injury, aiding and abetting discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, and aiding and abetting use of a firearm silencer during and in relation to a crime of violence. Seery was also convicted of transferring a firearm to be used in a felony and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Obando was convicted of receiving a firearm to be used in a felony.
Defense attorneys challenged the government’s version of events from different directions. Seery claimed he was not involved in the conspiracy. Obando’s defense disputed the cell phone evidence. The defense also argued that prosecutors had not proved enough about the intended target or any relationship between the defendants and the man who was actually shot. Jurors rejected those defenses for Seery and Obando after about two days of deliberations. But the jury did not convict Matthew Rosas, 25, who had been charged in the case. Prosecutors had alleged Rosas drove the vehicle during the shooting, and he was acquitted.
The case had moved through several stages before the life sentences. After the February 2025 shooting, Obando and Rosas faced state charges connected to the attack. Federal investigators later searched locations tied to Seery, and prosecutors said they found firearms, firearm parts and the 3D printer. In July 2025, a federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging Seery, Obando and Rosas with murder-for-hire and weapons offenses. The trial followed in early 2026, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Hunter Brown and Jill Stotts presenting the federal case. The jury returned guilty verdicts against Seery and Obando on Feb. 5.
Officials said several agencies worked the case, including the FBI, Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Texas Department of Public Safety and Katy Police Department, with help from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. FBI Houston Acting Special Agent in Charge Jason Hudson said the shooting first appeared to be a road rage incident but was later identified as a planned assassination attempt on the wrong person. The highway setting mattered because gunfire entered a commuter route during the morning drive. Prosecutors said the victim’s survival did not reduce the seriousness of the plot or the danger to other people on the road.
The life sentences were imposed after the court reviewed convictions that covered both the murder-for-hire scheme and the firearms used to carry it out. Federal authorities said Seery and Obando would remain in custody pending transfer to Bureau of Prisons facilities. The public record has not identified the wounded victim by name in the main federal announcements, and officials have not said that he had any role in the dispute that allegedly motivated Seery. The case now leaves one acquitted defendant, two men sentenced to life, one surviving victim and an intended target who was never shot.
Both Obando and Seery remain in federal custody after the April 2026 sentencing. The next public developments are expected to come through prison placement records or any post-trial filings in federal court.
Author note: Last updated May 22, 2026.