Suspects in informant's killing face death
District Attorney Jaime Esparza will seek the death penalty against two men accused in the murder of a federal informant last year.
On Monday, Esparza confirmed both Army Pfc. Michael Jackson Apodaca, 19, and Ruben Rodriguez-Dorado, 31, will face the death penalty. They are both charged with capital murder in the May 2009 death of Jose Daniel Gonzalez-Galeana, 37, a midlevel member of the Juárez drug cartel who also worked as an informant for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Esparza declined further comment.
Police said Gonzalez-Galeana was shot at least eight times in front of his home on Pony Trail Drive in East El Paso. Apodaca, who was 18 at the time of his arrest, is accused of being the shooter, while Rodriguez-Dorado and a 16-year-old boy are accused of being part of a surveillance team watching Gonzalez-Galeana.
Apodaca's attorneys, who work in the county's Public Defender's Office, voiced their opposition Monday to Esparza's decision.
"The decision to seek the death penalty against an 18-year-old boy-soldier who became ensnared in a case of international intrigue involving Mexican drug criminals working with United States federal agents is nothing more than scapegoating," said Robert Storch, spokesman for Chief Public Defender Clara Hernandez.
Attorney Russell Aboud, who represents Rodriguez-Dorado, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Jesus Aguayo Salas, the suspected midlevel cartel lieutenant accused of ordering the murder, is believed to be in Mexico and has not been arrested. The alleged getaway driver in the shooting, Christopher Andrew Duran, 18, is also charged with capital murder but will not face the death penalty.
Police have said Juárez cartel members assigned Rodriguez-Dorado, also an alleged ICE informant, to find and kill Gonzalez-Galeana because they believed he was cooperating with the U.S. government or had joined a rival crime organization.
At the time of the shooting, Gonzalez-Galeana lived in a home behind police Chief Greg Allen's house. After the murder, Allen said he didn't know about Gonzalez-Galeana's cartel ties or role as an ICE informant, and threatened to remove his officers from any ICE task forces.
Police said Gonzalez-Galeana owned a trucking business and permanently moved to El Paso on a visa from ICE, but didn't give up his role as a midlevel cartel boss coordinating drug shipments.
Both Apodaca and Rodriguez-Dorado are scheduled to be arraigned next week in state district court.
Prosecutors dropped charges against a fifth man originally charged in the murder, Orlando Rafael Benavente, because of insufficient evidence. Police had accused Benavente of being a lookout for the group.
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