A Man Called 911, Reporting He’d Been Shot: Later, Authorities Found Him and 5 Others Dead in A California Desert Following a Drug Dispute!
Cybersecdn– The bodies of six people found shot and some of them burned last week in a remote area of Southern California’s Mojave Desert have been linked to five men who have been arrested and charged.
Four of the bodies had also been burned, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Michael Warrick said at a news conference Monday evening. All six of the bodies seemed to have been killed by gunshots. Police say the killings seem to have something to do with illegal weed.
In a news release released Tuesday, San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said, “This mass murder, which took place in a dark, remote desert, clearly shows the violence and crime that happen because of illegal marijuana operations.” Anderson also said that the suspects were being charged with murder.
The bodies, who were all guys, were found last Tuesday night after one of the victims called 911. The man told them in Spanish that he had been shot and didn’t know where he was.
“Using latitude and longitude coordinates, dispatchers were able to track the phone to a remote area in Adelanto that is not part of any city,” Warrick said. An area called Adelanto is in the desert and is about 60 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
Police from the sheriff’s office and the California Highway Patrol’s air operations unit searched the area until they found a crime scene with “multiple gunshot wound victims” and two cars, one of which had multiple gunshot wounds.
Four of the victims were found with serious burns, one man was found inside a car, and the sixth man, who is thought to have called 911, was found a little farther away with a gunshot wound. Last week, CNN stations used drones to show what looked like the remains of a brutal crime scene.
Four of the victims have been named so far, the police said Monday. Authorities say that the 911 caller was Franklin Noel Bonilla, 22, and the others are Kevin Dariel Bonilla, 25, and a 45-year-old man whose family is still being contacted, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office said that during the investigation, multiple search warrants were carried out and several guns and other evidence were found.
Toniel Baez-Duarte, 34; Mateo Baez-Duarte, 24; Jose Nicolas Hernandez-Sarabia, 33; Jose Gregorio Hernandez-Sarabia, 36, who police had said was 34; and Jose Manuel Burgos Parra, 26 were the five suspects in the killings who were caught on Sunday. CNN is trying to find the lawyers for the people who are being charged.
According to a news release from the DA’s office on Tuesday, all five men were charged with six felonies of murder and six felonies of robbery. The news release said that there was a special circumstance accusation of multiple murders. All of them except Toniel Baez-Duarte were also charged with six additional counts of using a gun to commit a crime or crimes.
The victims were supposed to meet at the remote spot for a “marijuana transaction,” but the suspects showed up and shot them for “reasons still under investigation,” according to the sheriff’s office.
“We are sure that this looks like a fight over marijuana that led to the killings,” Warrick said. “Our investigators looked over the evidence they found at the scene and followed up on tips from the public.”The sergeant said that the probe was still going on. The DA’s office said all five suspects would be arraigned on Tuesday and would stay in jail without bail.
According to Warrick, the case does not yet appear to be linked to a gang or cartel. He stated, “There are some things at the scene that show a level of violence that raises some interesting questions for us, but at this point in the investigation, we can’t say if we believe this is cartel-related or not.”
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Officer Shannon D. Dicus of San Bernardino County said that the illegal marijuana market in the area has led to violent crime scenes, including murders. She also said that in the past year, marijuana enforcement teams have carried out more than 400 search warrants for illegal marijuana grows and seized more than 650,000 marijuana plants and $370 million.
