By MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
Managing Editor
editor@sbnewspaper.com
A total of six suspects have now been arrested in the stabbing death of 19-year-old Angel Perez, San Benito Police Department Detective Rogelio Banda, Jr. said Tuesday night.
The accused have been identified as Esteban Rodriguez, 22, Miguel Angel Perez, 18, Robert John Anthony Martinez, 18, Jose Lasaro Ramos, 21, JJ Leal, 18, and Ruby Nadine Sanchez, 23, all of San Benito. At least three of those identified have had prior run-ins with the SBPD.
According to Banda, the six will be facing first degree murder charges in Perez’s death.
“We were able to secure warrants from Justice of the Peace David Garza’s office for the offense of murder, a first degree felony,” Banda said. On the investigation that led to the six arrests, Banda said, “Right after the homicide, we started making contact with people, persons of interest, eye-witnesses, and we learned of those names. We brought them in, and investigators were talking to them all day yesterday and today. We were able to secure statements on their taking part in events.”
The detective said authorities are currently withholding information regarding motive and the role each of the accused is suspected to have played in the incident. What Banda did confirm, however, was that the crime did not appear to be gang related.
It’s a sentiment the victim’s aunt, Pat Longoria, shared on Monday just nine hours after learning of her nephew’s passing.
“He was not a troublemaker, he was not in any gangs that we know of, he was never in juvenile (detention), none of that stuff,” Longoria said outside Perez’s San Benito home on the 600 block of Doherty, just two blocks from where he was suspected to have been stabbed.
As previously reported, it was sometime after 12:30 a.m. on Monday when San Benito police found Perez near the intersection of Winchell and Rockefeller. Banda has said that Perez was bleeding profusely from wounds caused by “a sharp object.” Perez succumbed to his injuries shortly after being transported to Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen.
Longoria described Perez as a cancer survivor and recent San Benito graduate who had plans of attending college. “He was a good kid,” Longoria said. “He was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Want the whole story? Pick up a copy of the Nov. 25 edition of the San Benito News, or subscribe to our E-Edition by clicking here.
1 comment
qué triste