Posted on 05/01/2008 12:16:14 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
EDINBURG - Two men confessed to killing a Mexican national in a high-speed Sunday morning shootout because of an ongoing feud over a woman, authorities said Thursday.
Juan Heriberto Treviño Pineda, 35 and Jaime Luna Ibarra, 35, told investigators they killed Saul Antonio Lopez Garmendia as Treviño drove his grey Ford Taurus alongside Lopez's car, court documents show.
Three bullets struck Lopez, 27, as the two cars sped side-by-side about 10:30 a.m. Sunday along 1 Mile West just south of 11 Mile North. Two bullets pierced his chest, including one through the heart, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño, who is not related to the suspect.
After he was shot, Lopez lost control of his car, hit a tree and flipped several times before the car finally rested on its tires. A preliminary autopsy found the cause of death to be the gunshot to the chest and not the accident, according to court documents.
The incident started as Lopez drove his red Dodge Neon past Juan Treviño's house several times that morning, the sheriff said.
Juan Treviño was apparently dating Lopez's ex-girlfriend - which enraged Lopez.
A week before the shooting, both men and the woman were thrown out of a bar for fighting, the sheriff said. He didn't know the bar's name.
On Sunday, when authorities say Juan Treviño saw Lopez drive by his house, he and Luna - a Mexican national illegally living in the United States - hopped into a car and sped after Lopez, pulled up next to him and shot him, the sheriff said. It was Juan Treviño's .357-caliber Magnum revolver that Luna used to shoot Lopez as Treviño drove, according to investigators.
Witnesses and friends of Lopez led police to the two suspects on Wednesday afternoon. The two offered no resistance as they were taken into custody that day and confessed to the killing, the sheriff said.
They were both arraigned Thursday afternoon on one felony count of murder each. Their bonds were each set at $1 million.
While authorities do not suspect the alleged murder was gang related, Luna is a known member of the Partido Revolucionario Mexicano, a violent prison gang also known as Los Borrachos de Villa, according to the sheriff. He recently said the gang is a dangerous and growing group in the Rio Grande Valley, and the only local criminal organization whose majority of members are criminal illegal immigrants.
Last month, a 36-year-old former Mexican judicial officer and gang member, Jose Guadalupe Garcia, was allegedly shot and killed for trying to leave the gang. Sheriff's deputies found his mutilated body earlier this month.
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Sean Gaffney covers law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.
Illegal immigration kills.
“Why couldn’t they do this in Mexico?”
“Wherever you find a mexican, you will find mexico”
Truer words have seldom been spoken...
Get these ass-hats and their crimes out of this country NOW!
ping
Where’s that picture from?
Partido Revolucionario Mexicano Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
I just did a Google image search. I think it may be a movie.
“No Country for Old Men” But since the white males of America have been turned into she-males cowering whenever some turd shrieks “racist” (whatever that means?) Mexico moves north. “Not with a bang, but a whimper.”
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