By Sandra Dibble Union-Tribune Staff Writer
2:00 a.m. May 21, 2009
TIJUANA — A U.S. citizen facing trial in Arizona on drug-trafficking charges may be connected to the deaths of four San Diego County residents whose
bodies were found inside a van in a residential Tijuana neighborhood this month.
Ernesto Murguia Ochoa, 22, who is scheduled for trial July 20 in Maricopa County, was renting a house in eastern Tijuana that the four young victims
are believed to have visited and where they may have been killed, said a Mexican law enforcement official familiar with the case.
Authorities have yet to determine whether Murguia is a perpetrator or a victim of the crimes, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to discuss the case.
Murguia is currently missing, the official said.
He was one of 30 defendants named in a 54-count drug-trafficking indictment in September in Maricopa County Superior Court. According to court
documents, Murguia pleaded not guilty and was released after posting a $50,000 bond.
In February, a judge ordered a bench warrant for his arrest after Murguia failed to appear for a court hearing. On May 9, the victims were found
stabbed and strangled inside a burgundy Ford Aerostar with California plates parked in the same Loma Dorada neighborhood where Murguia had rented the
house. Some time later, Mexican soldiers raided the residence and found blood-stained walls and the victims'identification cards.
All four victims crossed the border frequently and had gone to party in Tijuana when they were killed, authorities said. They were identified as
Brianna Hernandez Aguilera, 19; Carmen Jimena Ramos Chavez, 20; Luis Antonio Gamez, 21; and Oscar Jorge Garcia Cota, 23.
One of the victims, Garcia, had been arrested on suspicion of alien smuggling in January 2008 after he was stopped while driving a vehicle with six
illegal immigrants aboard, but he was never charged.
Investigators believe that Murguia had a relationship with at least one of the victims, the official said, and they are working to determine whether
the victims had participated with Murguia in drug-trafficking activities. |