The Woodward News

Local News

November 17, 2009

Arraignment dates set in murder case

Arraignment for a Guatemalan man charged with first-degree murder has been set for 11 a.m. on Dec. 8  in Woodward County District Court, according to court documents.

At the arraignment, a trial date will be set for 22-year-old Julio Juarez Ramos, who along with his brother Isidro Juarez Ramos, 29, of Guatemala, is charged in the May 16 killing of Antonio Lopez Velasquez, who was also from Guatemala.

The preliminary hearing for Isidro Ramos is 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 17 in Woodward, according to the court records.

The two men are being tried separately “in case one of them turns over evidence against the other,” Woodward County Sheriff Gary Stanley said Monday.

Both murder suspects are illegal immigrants, court records state.

According to court affidavits, the two brothers allegedly strangled Velasquez and allegedly confessed to Enid police. They then led authorities to the Velasquez’s body, which was located in a rural area near Mooreland.

The Ramos brothers were living in Mooreland when the crime occurred, according to the affidavits. Velasquez had been living in Woodward.

Mooreland Police Chief Stephen Summerall had received a report that Velasquez was missing and it was thought he might be in Enid, according to court documents.

Summerall  contacted Enid police, but instead of Velasquez, they found the Ramos brothers in Velasquez’s Ford Mustang. The brothers were then arrested, according to the affidavits.

Velasquez’s girlfriend, Linda Sue Ann Castillo, who first reported him missing, allegedly told Summerall that Velasquez had loaned a substantial sum of money to Julio Juarez Ramos and that the two had been fighting about the loan for several weeks, according to the affidavits.

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