Three of the six charged in the restaurant kidnapping The hippoin Río Piedras, and for the murder of the adolescent Jesus Francis Perez they pleaded not guilty to new charges included in a third indictment in this case.
A federal grand jury added two additional criminal counts to the new amended indictment to bring the felony allegations to six.
From the new charges it appears that the second vehicle used by the defendants was allegedly also stolen by carjacking days before the kidnapping and murder.
The original complaint of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI, for its acronym in English) established that the individuals arrived at the restaurant on the night of October 31, 2021.
It indicates that at that time two people were kidnapped. Two of them were mounted once morest her will in the white Ford bus owned by one of the victims and that was stolen at that time to kidnap the person.
The complaint adds that, at that time, “victim 2” and Francisco Pérez were approached in the same way in an orange Jeep Patriot vehicle. Later, these two victims were transferred to the white bus, where the teenager was killed.
In the new indictment, issued this month, the federal grand jury indicates that three of the co-defendants committed a carjacking on October 29, 2021 to steal the Jeep Patriot through “force and intimidation,” using a firearm.
The first three named in the statement were charged with these two new charges: Geofley Jomar Pérez, Luis Aulet Maldonado and Luis Cabán Martínez.
The trio and co-defendant Jopse Jomar Santos Mercado also face charges previously filed by the carjacking of the white bus that resulted in a death, kidnapping that resulted in a death and discharge of a firearm while committing a crime.
The second statement of the caseissued last June, added Basilio Matías Fajardo and Edwin Peña Valdez as defendants, resulting in the six co-defendants facing charges of conspiracy to interfere with interstate commerce through robbery.
Five of the six defendants are in the custody of federal authorities, while Peña Valdez remains in a prison in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
Federal judge Pedro Delgado has already ordered that he be transferred to the authorities of the District of Puerto Rico.
