His "deliberate coolness" when robbing or shooting someone "is probably without a parallel in the whole range of criminal annals" (Daily Alta California).
The saloon was nearby the ranch of San Dieguito, where there lived an unrelated man named Jose Morales.
On August 24, near San Juan Capistrano, two men from the search party found Sylvestro and Nymphia having a meal at a friend's house.
On August 25, 1889, Sylvestro Morales murdered San Juan Capistrano rancher Henry Charles when he went to check the corral.
The rewards offered for Sylvestro's arrest were $600 by the estate of Henry Charles, $300 by Robert Waterman and $400 by Jose Morales.
Keno Wilson, initially a one-man search effort, increased his party to three when he added Ignacio Castillo, a former member of Sylvestro's gang who Wilson offered immunity from prosecution, and Johnny McGarvin, whose son's discovery of footprints led him to find Morales on a ranch in Los Alamitos Bay.