A control judge linked Diego Uriel RL, 20 years old, accused of the crimes of aggravated homicide and injuries, as co-perpetrator, to the detriment of Carlos Eduardo Ortega Meléndez, 20 years old, and Paulina EP, 19 years old, both students from the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez (UACJ).
The events occurred on the night of March 18 in the parking lot of Plaza Bistro, located in Campos Elíseos, when the couple was surprised by the gunman who spent almost two hours “hunting” her, according to the images shown by the Public Ministry during the development of the bond hearing, held yesterday in Room 11.
Within the same criminal case 2315/2023, the prosecutor identified before the judge Jesús Alexis Franco Tornero, as the material author of the crime and a man identified only as Óscar, as the intellectual author; Both people are alleged members of the criminal group La Empresa, without any of them being detained so far.
This organization, the investigations indicate, sells drugs in bars such as Silver Fox, the branches of Cervecería 19, in Plaza Bistro and other businesses; Those involved are people between the ages of 20 and 25.
The defendant’s legal defender, José Miramontes Caro, said that he will disagree with the judge’s resolution, asserting the multiple failures in the integration of the investigation folder just for presenting results to society in a high-impact case.
“We were better off when we were worse off,” the litigant said at the hearing, asserting that the investigation is based on statements obtained through acts of torture and without scientific evidence. The judge gave notice to the Public Ministry to open an investigation folder for the facts indicated by the defendant and activate the Istanbul protocol.
Diego Uriel made use of his right to testify. He said that he was detained on Tuesday, April 13, by ministerial agents when he was going to pay for gas at the branch on De las Torres avenue.
He was driving a black 2012 Ford Fusion car, which had broken glass, crashes, and the lack of lenses in one of the rear lights; The unit, he said, he bought it on April 2 through the social network Facebook for 35,000 pesos, of which he only paid 30,000.
The man who sold him the vehicle contacted him via cell phone and gave him the car’s documents, which remained inside the unit.
“I was very happy with my cart, it’s the first one I bought,” said the carpenter by trade, who drives a truck owned by the carpentry shop in which he is a partner with two friends.
The agents allegedly found cocaine inside the car and consigned it to the Specialized Drug Retail Court. From that moment on, the Strategic Operations Center (COE) kept the vehicle.
After the initial hearing, Diego Uriel explained that he was released after the signature precautionary measure was imposed and attended rehabilitation, although he assured that he does not use drugs.
He mentioned that he was only free for two days, since the elements of the Prosecutor’s Office, as well as the military, went to the house where he lives with his partner and his in-laws to complete a search warrant, which was issued by Judge Brisa Yadira Meraz herself.
Supposedly the agents seized drugs in the house and arrested Diego Uriel again. He maintained that he was severely beaten and then transferred to the Prosecutor’s Office; With the authorization of the public defender, he said that he was taken out of the cells to locate various houses, which he claimed not to know.
When they took him to the Public Ministry, he observed that there was a man, identified as Sergio, whom he told to say that Diego Uriel was his boss. Then they met in the cell and that’s how he met him.
Diego Uriel assured that he was subjected to beatings and threats, in addition to being forced to say what the social representation wanted to incriminate himself.
At the end of 48 hours he was released but, he said, when leaving the Prosecutor’s Office he was expected by municipal agents who arrested him for allegedly touching a policewoman and a civic judge imposed an administrative sanction on him for 36 hours. He was leaving the preventive prison in the Central District when the ministerial agents executed the arrest warrant for homicide.
The evidence
The social representation presented as evidence a photographic series prepared by the forensic computer expert.
The images were obtained from 29 cameras that the Bistro plaza has and they show the events that occurred on the second floor of the parking lot. At 9:21:34 p.m., the arrival of the 2022 white Mustang that the victim was driving, along with her companion, is parked and the couple stays inside the unit.
The image shows that at 9:27 p.m. a vehicle 2 arrives, a Nissan Máxima brand with license plates 962SEC9 and after several minutes the pilot gets out of the unit and goes down to the bars. The person is allegedly calling on a cell phone and greets the security guards at one of the businesses, where he remains standing.
At 10:51 p.m., he goes up to the parking lot and boards the vehicle, leaves the square outside and returns at 10:48 p.m. At 10:55 p.m. a third light-colored vehicle arrives and passes by where the victims are and at 10:56 p.m. gets out of the parking lot. A fourth vehicle appears on the scene at 10:57 p.m., it is a dark sedan; vehicle 3 climbs back up.
Vehicles 2 and 3 and the victim’s are parked. As the assailant gets out of the unit, he heads to the stairs to go down to the bars while he continues on the cell phone call. After a few minutes, the attacker approaches vehicle 4, which has already gotten out, and interacts with the driver, and then the unit leaves.
The assailant walks and goes up the stairs, approaches vehicle 3, withdraws and walks to the vehicle where the victims are and shoots from the driver’s side. The units leave the place and only the Maxima car remains in the parking lot, which was picked up the next day by the attacker, in the alleged company of the detainee.
testify witnesses
One of the witnesses who testified was Sergio Ramírez, detained aboard a 2002 Nissan Máxima, allegedly in possession of cocaine wrappers, which, he assured, were his property for personal consumption.
“That car was brought to my house so that I could fix the party transmission,” the mechanic declared. He said that the day he was arrested he was at Cervecería 19, located on Paseo de la Victoria, where he hooked up with a woman and was later arrested. The Public Ministry asked the witness to read his statements and in them he incriminates himself as a drug dealer and locates being under the orders of Diego Uriel, alleged boss of “La Empresa”, who kills them or orders them killed if they do not comply with his orders. instructions. His in-laws also testified, confirming that Uriel bought the car on April 2 and that during the search the ministerial agents stole more than 16,000 pesos and even left them without an order.
The judge considered that, at that procedural moment, there were indications to link the defendant to the process, who will remain in Cereso 3 and granted a period of three months to the MP to close the investigation.
