KEY POINTS
- Two New Mexico men were charged with killing a 21-year-old man and kidnapping the victim's 16-year-old sister
- One of the two suspects was arrested Sunday on separate charges
- The suspected shooter is still on the loose
Two men have been charged after they allegedly killed a man and kidnapped their victim's teenage sister in New Mexico last month.
The suspects, identified as 29-year-old Edgar Orona and 22-year-old Erick Garcia, were each charged with an open count of murder, kidnapping, child abuse, armed robbery and conspiracy for the death of 21-year-old Esteban Mercado-Rangel on Sept. 25, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
Orona and Garcia also allegedly forced Mercado-Rangel's 16-year-old sister into a car at gunpoint after shooting her brother on the mesa 15 miles west of Albuquerque. But she was able to escape soon after, court records said.
Garcia was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center Sunday on separate charges. A warrant of arrest has been issued for Orona.
Garcia was also charged in connection with a Sept. 10 robbery. He and his group allegedly rammed their car into the wall of a business adjacent to a gun store and hammered a hole into the Los Ranchos Gun Shop near Osuna and Fourth before taking off with seven firearms, KRQE reported.
Two weeks after Garcia's alleged crime spree, Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputies responding to reports of a shooting found Mercado-Rangel dead with at least one gunshot wound.
Mercado-Rangel's sister told police she and her brother were shooting in the area when the two suspects befriended Mercado-Rangel, smoked marijuana and tried to sell him a gun. Garcia and Orona helped jump Mercado-Rangel's battery before they allegedly shot her brother in the chest multiple times, the victim's sister said.
The teen later identified Orona as the shooter.
Meanwhile, Garcia told officers he didn’t know the plan was to rob Mercado-Rangel.
Garcia said he and Orona smoked methamphetamine in the mesa with Mercado-Rangel, tried to sell him a rifle and exchanged phone numbers with him. He also told deputies they helped Mercado-Rangel jump his SUV before Orona allegedly suddenly pulled out a gun and shot the victim.
Garcia claimed Orona then allegedly grabbed the 16-year-old sister, who was crying beside her brother, and forced her into the SUV. He and Orona then met up in Albuquerque, and Orona said the girl escaped.
Garcia further claimed that they split up meth they took from Mercado-Rangel's SUV, and Orona, who was "extremely paranoid," allegedly took the murder weapon with him and disappeared. Police found paperwork from the victim's SUV in the trash at Garcia's home.
Mercado-Rangel’s stolen SUV was later found near Coors and Bridge SW with the inside torched. Police managed to pull data from Mercado-Rangel’s phone and discovered that the deceased received a call from Orona’s number before his death.
Police found that Orona's phone had been in the area at the time of the shooting. Messages between him and Garcia referencing the homicide and other crimes, including a gun store robbery, were also found in the phone, cops said.
The messages also showed that the two suspects discussed robbing someone at gunpoint and stealing a car in the days leading up to the homicide, according to the police,
The messages, translated from Spanish, included "I will accompany you to the robbery" and "Today we will do the robbery." In messages days after the homicide, Garcia told Orona to leave the backpack and pistol at his house "so they don't get the evidence."
Gavel | representative image Photo: Pixabay
