"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat
An inmate was brutally strangled, stabbed in the eye and beaten to death at an El Paso jail because of his alleged ties to the Barrio Azteca gang and "personal" issues with one of the suspected killers, documents state.
Jesus Torres, 57, was found dead with a plastic bag filled with blood wrapped around his head about 7:53 a.m. Monday, Nov. 27, in his jail cell at the El Paso County Jail Annex in far East El Paso, a complaint affidavit states.
Six suspects have been charged in connection with Torres' death.
The slaying occurred after the suspects received "confirmation from outside sources that (Torres) was ex-Barrio Azteca and had other involvements with personal matters involving" one of the suspects — Manuel Alejandro Vargas — who is charged in Torres' death.
The Barrio Azteca, whose members are known as Aztecas, was formed in the Texas prison system and operates on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Vargas and five other inmates are being charged with murder in Torres' death. The suspects are:
Vargas, 31, who was jailed since Sept. 26 on charges of smuggling of persons, evading arrest and aggravated assault of a public servant.
Juan Alberto Ortiz, 18, who was jailed since last December on another murder charge.
George Lopez, 23, who was jailed since 2021 on charges of engaging in organized criminal activity and parole revocations on aggravated assault and deadly conduct cases.
Jesus Adrian Rocha, 38, who was jailed since Oct. 26 on a charge of manufacture/delivery of methamphetamine case.
Jovani Dionicio Ramos, 29, jailed since July 24 on a smuggling of persons charge.
Christian Carrillo, 25, jailed since Aug. 31 on a smuggling of persons charge.
Torres repeatedly kicked, punched, beaten with wooden cane
El Paso County Sheriff's Office detectives arrived at the Jail Annex, 12501 Montana Ave., about 8 a.m. to investigate a report of a death of an inmate.
Detectives met with a detention officer who said he found Torres covered with a blanket and laying on a bottom bunk unresponsive in Cellblock 1020, Room 1018.
The detention center officer told investigators he uncovered Torres and saw his head wrapped in a plastic trash bag, an affidavit states. The officer also found earphones wrapped around Torres' neck.
The detention officer called for medical staff, but Torres had no signs of life.
No information was released on the last time detention officers checked the inmate's cell the night of the killing.
Four inmates were in the room as the officer discovered the body. The inmates included Vargas, Ortiz, Lopez and Ramos, the affidavit states. The men were removed from the room and separated.
Detectives viewed surveillance video from the jail showing the room where Torres was killed on Sunday, Nov. 26. The affidavit describes a timeline as seen on the video recording:
7:04 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 26:
Torres walks into the room with Ortiz already in the room. Two minutes later, Vargas, Ramos, Lopez and Roach entered the room. A minute later, Carrillo walked into the room.
Torres is seen on the video sitting on the lower bunk with the six suspects standing around him and talking to him.
7:14 p.m.:
Carrillo leaves the room, goes to another room and gets a "kite" message from under the door, the affidavit states.
Kite messages are small notes sent among inmates to communicate with each other. The affidavit does not state what was written in the kite message.
Torres was hit in the face and beaten by the suspects. He is punched and kicked while on the floor by Ortiz and Vargas, the affidavit states.
7:16 p.m.:
Carrillo returns to Torres' room and watches the men beat Torres.
The men begin to beat Torres with a wooden cane, the affidavit states. They continue to stomp on and kick him numerous times.
Carrillo exits the room and acts as a lookout on the top tier of the cell block while Torres continues to be beaten.
Ramos appears to be acting as a "lookout" inside Torres' cell and attempting to obstruct the view of anyone who may be trying to look into the cell, the affidavit states. Lopez then leaves the room and goes to a restroom on the cell block's top tier.
Roach leaves the room, goes to a cell below Torres' room and calls over an inmate. He swaps uniforms with the inmate, the affidavit states. He remains in the bottom cell as Torres continues to be beaten.
7:24 p.m.:
Lopez is seen putting on a new uniform and re-enters Torres' room, while Ramos leaves the room, the affidavit states.
Torres continues to be beaten by Vargas, Ortiz and Lopez, the affidavit states. Ortiz is allegedly repeatedly beating Torres with the wooden cane.
Vargas then attempts to put a plastic trash bag over Torres' head, but Torres continues to struggle with the men, the affidavit states.
Torres is dragged back to his bunk by Vargas and Ortiz. Lopez begin wiping the floor with what appears to be a towel as the men continue to beat Torres, the affidavit states.
7:45 p.m.:
Lopez leaves the room, while Vargas and Ortiz stay and appear to be wiping and cleaning the room, the affidavit states.
8:01 p.m.:
Vargas and Ortiz leave Torres' cell.
12 hours later:
Torres' body is found by the detention officer.
Witness: Torres won't die so he was stabbed in the eyes
Detectives later interviewed a witness who wished to remain anonymous.
The witness said Vargas previously told him he was waiting for confirmation from outside sources that Torres was a former Barrio Azteca gang member. Vargas also allegedly said he had "other involvements with personal matters" with Torres, the witness claimed.
Sheriff’s office officials have not disclosed if Torres may have been targeted because of his gang status.
Former members of the Barrio Azteca — known as Barrio Azteca X (pronounced “equis” in Spanish) and also referred to as “muletas” (crutches) — could be marked for retaliation if they left the gang without permission.
Vargas allegedly told the witness that once he had confirmation of Torres being an ex-Barrio Azteca member, he was going to assault Torres and have him kicked out of the cell block, the affidavit states.
The witness claimed he saw Vargas, Ortiz, Lopez, Carrillo and Roach go to Torres' cell about 7 p.m. the night of the assault.
He added he heard Torres screaming and asking for the suspects to let him go. The witness said he saw several of the suspects cleaning up the cell.
Vargas allegedly told the witness that Torres wouldn't die so he grabbed him by the neck and punched him in the scrotum until he stopped moving, the affidavit states. He then allegedly claimed to have stabbed Torres in the eyes.
Roacha told the witness he "got several punches in on" Torres and walked out during the attack to change his uniform once they split Torres' head open, the affidavit states.
The men were rebooked on murder charges.
Sheriff's Office officials said they were separating certain inmates and placing them in lockdown cells to prevent potential retaliation following Torres' death.
Torres' death remains under investigation, officials said.
Hay nos vidrios Chuy
ReplyDeleteIn TDC alot of the main prison gangs get hit by the new brazen young guns the Tango Blast
ReplyDeleteTango be hitting prison gangs but for an entirely different reason than other more organized prison gangs. The tango rule is no killings only severe beatdowns to their enemies.
DeleteThis is because tango was never made to be a criminal gang per say only.
It was made for self defense and with non of the "blood in, blood out"mentality these other gangs expect.
10:04 Tango Blast runs Texas prisons. Especially in the 4 big cities
Delete10:04 tango puro vato caga palo. They run the state prisons in numbers but in the streets they won't hold their own against say a cartel like Aztecas did in Juarez against Sinaloa.
DeleteThis is because Aztecas are organized even if fewer in numbers.
Other gangs like eme stick to their own side of the border for the most part. These guys cannot control Texas or Mexico like they do So Cal.
All them vatos look like straight up cartel hit man Now gone do life i'm prision lets see how they do what goes around comes around
ReplyDeleteSeems like Mexicans runs USA underworld everywhere both outside and inside
ReplyDeletePretty much true, For the greater part of the West Coast and the Plain States. They have a big presence in the South as well, but when it comes to the eastern part of the Midwest, the East Coast and the other side of the Mid-Atlantic, they aren’t running the show. It really depends on the type of Jale as well. You can get them Caribbean Fellas for the ❄️. Asian Fellas for 🌲. Los Crepas y Sangres in the D, DC,DMV,Tri State area for the real azulitas. Location location location.
DeleteWhere is Italian mob?
ReplyDeleteSeems like they are tiny schoolboys compared to other groups
Apples and oranges. I’m not a mafia fanboy but Don’t forget the mafia operated IN the USA with the BOSSES IN the USA. Not hiding in some corrupt narco country. Gotti for all his faults went toe to toe with the Feds and won multiple times by hook or crook. Chapo didn’t have the power or guys to hook or crook a usa fed jury. Did he? But like I said apples and oranges
DeleteItalian mob has always been overhyped since Mario Puzo's book the Godfather and the subsequent movie. Yeah, they're up there but don't compare to other mobs.
Delete11:08
DeleteHomegrown USA drug network bosses don't hide in other countries, they're an extension of Mexican cartels although autonomous. Italian mafia was always overhyped because of movies.
Gotti was easily captured and it took the USA how long to capture Chapo? Gotti won his first cases because they were small potatoes compared to Chapo's case.
Delete@11:17 Disagree about the overhyped. At the height of its power La Cosa Nostra was very powerful indeed. What other mob can boast of turning a dusty Nevada town into a fabulous gambling mecca? Though it's stranglehold on unions the mob was able to control trucking and construction in various major cities.
DeleteThe mob was influential in boxing and had deep hooks in the music business.
People forget that the Italian mob were high-level racketeers and not just knee-breaking, bookmaking and loan sharking Guidos.
1:10PM
DeleteCan the Italian mob boast of turning entire countries into failed states? The mob is always overhyped.
JamesBrown, Las Vegas and boxing are small potatoes compared to cartels taking over entire sections of a country.
DeleteCartels have at times offered to pay a country's entire national debt a thing the Italian mafia can only dream of.
DeleteThe italians and italian american mobs want to earn money as low key as posible. They dont want to fuck up their country or adopted countries like usa or canada. As far as violence is more selected. But Toto Reina did in sicily what most gangsters cant in any country wich is bring all rival mafia clans in sicily under the control of one mafia clan. The corleonese. From the 80s till today. Pablo Escobar was the only boss to have offered to pay his countries debts. Back when he was making an estimated 500,000 an hour.
DeleteCarlos Lehder also offered to pay the national debt. Honestly, Toto Reins sounds small time compared to cartels.
DeleteTime the fuck out. You fools are delusional. Number one, the Italian Mob has evolved. Look into how many politicians have Italian last names. How many Police Chiefs are Italian across the U.S. How many construction companies and so on. The Jewish Mov came before the Italian Mob, but they saw the end game and adapted their next generations plight. The Cartels can run the show but for how long. The name of the game is quality of life. Yeah Chapo was the man, and look at him now? Ovidio, Osiel etc etc. if they were smart, they’d be knocking up two or three American ladies, having that seed blossom into a community activist or lawyer or city planner and grow their influence legally and step aside from the Black market. The cycle of violence and prison will continue as long as you keep the same business model. But hey. Dale gas
Delete@4:09 Italians have been around in this country for dozens of years before Mexicans. This is the reason there are Italian names in so much shit including politics.
DeleteVisit the Southwest of the country and you'll see Spanish last names on lots of shit also including police captains, politicians and so forth.
The thing is Mexicans like myself are not proud if these people were criminals like you apparently want to boast about!
The aztecas took him out cause he was a drop out I'm from el paso tx.Even if the aztecas are part of the juarez cartel there also a prison gang with alot of politics its blood in blood out.
ReplyDeleteThese guys think they are all bad asses ganging up six on one. Let's see how bad they are sitting in Livingston waiting for their final trip to Huntsville. They're going to have a lot of time to think about this before a needle is placed in their arm. Probably the worst part is sitting in Livingston all of those years thinking about their destiny. They will be in tiny cells with very little yard time and a lot of time to think about their lives.
ReplyDelete16 gang killing barrio azteca they would have done the same to one of them on their yard
ReplyDeleteI would rather go to protective custody and snitch, instead of doing a suicide mission, especially if you only had minimum time to do. Now they are never getting out of jail.
ReplyDeleteThis is an easy one. Firing squad for all of them or stab then in both eyes. If they die the tax payer will stop getting docked for it. The US justice system is corrupt as fuck though just like mejico so it sucks for the old dude. Also kill whoever received and sent the kite just for being a lame alcahuete.
ReplyDeleteOrtiz is a piece of shit he killed his mom with a shotgun last year around the corner from my house fuckn methhead
ReplyDeleteHe's the one whos face looks the most like a killer. Si mato a su mamá que le puede esperar a un ajeno...
DeleteThe young guy? Wtf would meth really push you to those limits?
DeleteDamnn homie. Killing your own mom is cold
DeleteSame thit happens when a cuerno or eme dude gets put in gp in Dallas or Houston. in el paso the chuco tango has been going at it with the aztecas for years trying to break free frm their grip. Its on sight whenever they cross paths..
ReplyDeleteBenny and the Jets.
DeleteImagine throwing away your life to kill some meth head senior citizen... Absolute idiots. Have fun spending forever locked up/maybe texas will put you to death.
ReplyDelete57 is not old anymore that age can still kick any young punk
DeleteTango blast are the mutts of prison gangs nobody wants them all petty car thieves burglars and convicted sexual predators they prevail In prison because of the numbers but alone are nothing guards always have problems with them can't seem to follow the rules in or out of prison always cutting in line at chow hall shirttails untucked yelling the N word among them all come from messed
Deleteup homes vallucos orejones all misfits and rejects of society.
Little rats,look at the state of the guy they killed and it still took them ages,6 of them,fuckin scurrying rats.Clowns here will think their all hard core,Aztecas loser rats
ReplyDeleteWhy you hating? You think it's easy to make a decision to kill a guy in a prison in a state that still has the death penalty?
DeleteTrying to do that in silicone so the guards don't find out while they are doing so?
What a dirty job the 6 did on the old cat he fought for his life even if he dropped out nobody should have to die that way it could have been clean As for the idiota lame that did his mother Échenle un baño de gasolina y directamente al Diablo pinche mal agradecido era tu madre pendejo
ReplyDeleteJente de la pixza
ReplyDeleteOnly the people that don't really have any power go to prison ... Then when they have a bunch of losers in prison worship em they think they have all this influence lolo idiots and it's like yeah influence among a bunch of fuc-ing losers like them
ReplyDeleteLosers that can probably whoop your ass no one cares how you feel about them
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