Defendant admitted role in Edinburg massacre

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Defendant admitted role in Edinburg massacre
August 23,2005
Brittney Booth
The Monitor


EDINBURG — Jurors on Monday heard an audio recording of Rodolfo "Kreeper" Medrano telling Edinburg police that he lent lower-ranking gang members weapons to "rip off" a large amount of marijuana.

"That’s what was supposed to have happened," Medrano said to retired police Sgt. Reyes Ramirez on Jan. 25, 2003, the day after police arrested him and two others in connection with the Jan. 5 shooting deaths of six men found in two small homes on Monte Cristo Road.

Medrano, 26, is the third of 13 indicted on capital murder charges to stand trial in the shootings. His trial began Aug. 15 in Judge Mario Ramirez’s 332nd state District Court. Two men, Juan Raul Navarro Ramirez and Humberto "Gallo" Garza, are on death row after being found guilty of capital murder in connection with the shootings.

Though prosecutors acknowledge Medrano was not at the crime scene, he is facing the death penalty if found guilty. Texas’ law of parties allows a person who conspires with others to commit a criminal act that ends in murder to face the same punishment as the murderer.

In the recording, Ramirez asks Medrano if he wants a lawyer and if he understands his right to remain silent. Medrano pauses briefly before affirming that he will answer police questions.

Responding to Ramirez’s questions, Medrano said he is a sergeant in the Tri-City Bombers gang, which he joined in 1996.

On Jan. 4, 2003, Medrano received a call from Garza, the gang’s captain, asking him to take weapons to the home of Juanon, or Juan Arturo Villarreal Cordova, who is also a sergeant.

Medrano dropped off SKS 7.62 millimeter weapons at Cordova’s home and then spent the night with his wife watching movies they rented, he told Ramirez in the recording.

The slayings occurred shortly after midnight on Jan. 5.

Medrano said he found out by watching the evening news.

"I understood they were just going to rob some marijuana, some pounds," Medrano told Ramirez. "When they first called me, they asked me if I wanted to go. I told them no. I’ve never done something like that. I don’t do that."

Ramirez asked what happened that changed the robbery into a slaying.

"They found letters que eran Chicanos (that they were Chicanos)," Medrano said, referring to the victims as members of the rival gang Texas Chicano Brotherhood. He said he didn’t know who made the call to begin shooting.

Medrano told Ramirez he acted as the gang’s treasurer and had purchased the weapons for $300 from a gun dealer at a McAllen gun show. He did not register the weapons, and told Ramirez he knew that was illegal.

When police arrested the first gang member involved in the case, Medrano said he hid the weapons at a friend’s house and told him to destroy them if police arrested Medrano.

Medrano identified Robert "Bones" Gene Garza as a shooter and told Ramirez the names of the other gang members that he believed had participated in the raid.

Ramirez also questioned Medrano about the shooting of four women in Donna. A jailed gang member named Juan Carlos Rodriguez, or Roach, ordered a hit on the owner of Garcia’s place, the main witness against him in his attempted murder trial.

Robert "Bones" Gene Garza, indicted in the Edinburg slayings, is already on death row for the Donna murders. Medrano is also charged with capital murder in the Donna case.

"They messed up and killed the waitresses," Medrano said. "We were all upset because (Rodriguez) just jumped the gun and ordered (the hit). There was no chain of command."

Hidalgo County Assistant District Attorneys Judith Cantu and Cregg Thompson are using the recording Ramirez made of his interview with Medrano to prove he should have reasonably anticipated the killings when he lent gang members his weapons. They are expected to finish their case against Medrano today.

On cross examination from Medrano’s defense attorney Hector Villarreal, Ramirez acknowledged that Medrano didn’t indicate he knew the murders were going to happen.

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Brittney Booth covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at [phone].