D.A. to pursue death penalty in burning death
By Isaac Groves
The Times-News
The Alamance County District Attorney's Office will seek the death penalty against Cesar "Chilango" Torres-Acevedo in last summer's burning death of Juan Mario Martinez Trujillo, 56, of Hillsborough.
"Today we gave notice to the defense that we intend to proceed capitally," said Cory Santos, first assistant district attorney.
Torres-Acevedo is accused of setting Trujillo on fire with an accelerant on Hatchery Road near Interstate 40/85 the evening of June 13, 2015. He died Aug. 24 at UNC Medical Center as a result of his injuries. Burlington police arrested Torres-Acevedo in January.
Now that the defense has been notified in Monday's Rule 24 hearing, the N.C. Office of Indigent Defense Services will assign Torres-Acevedo a 2nd lawyer to join Graham attorney Todd Smith.
Torres-Acevedo is being held without bond, Santos said.
The long investigation involved interviews, searches and surveillance and collected a wide range of circumstantial evidence.
According to a police affidavit, friends of Trujillo said he had been involved in drug trafficking with a man called "Chilango," slang for a man from Mexico City, and that there was an ongoing dispute between them over $5,000 to $10,000. Police were later able to identify Torres-Acevedo as "Chilango."
On Facebook, police found photos of Torres-Acevedo tagged "Bandolero Torres" and a page under that name with a profile including a cover image of "famous Mexican drug cartel leaders" and "likes" for Facebook pages related to at least 2 drug cartels.
According to police, cellphone records show consistent contact between Torres-Acevedo and Trujillo from December 2014 to May 2015, and suggest they were both at the K&W Cafeteria in Burlington, a few hundred yards from the crime scene, the night of the assault.
After the assault, but before his death, Trujillo said a man named "Fernando" assaulted him, a nickname Torres-Acevedo's ex-wife said he sometimes used, according to police.
Gastonia police arrested Torres-Acevedo in a traffic stop Jan. 12 with about 4 pounds of methamphetamine worth about $68,000, according to police.
http://www.thetimesnews.com/article/...NEWS/160609223
Bookmarks