The Attorney General Office ordered the arrest of Police Colonel Cesar Mariñez Lora, commander of the Villa Altagracia police contingent. He is incriminated in the case of two pastors murdered by a Villa Altagracia police patrol in a case of mistaken identity. The patrol used weapons that were authorized to Mariñez Lora.
Prosecutor Fátima Sánchez Guzmán said the colonel is under arrest for his responsibility in the murder of the married couple, 35-year old Eliza Muñoz Marte and 37-year old Joel Eusebio Díaz Ferrer. She says the preliminary investigations reveal there is sufficient evidence to incriminate Mariñez. Charges will be presented during the hearing for preventive custody.
Mariñez Lora was the superior of the patrol that murdered the couple on 30 March 2021 when they were inside their vehicle. The couple was returning to Santo Domingo in the evening after participating in a religious activity in Bonao. Two other persons were in the vehicle and survived, including 29-year old Claudio Ramírez Lamais, who suffered bullet injuries.
Mariñez Lora was arrested and sent to the Ciudad Nueva preventive jail.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office has already obtained one year of preventive imprisonment against Victorino Reyes Navarro (second lieutenant), Domingo Perdomo Reyes (sergeant), as well as corporals Norquis Rodríguez Jiménez and Ángel de Los Santos and privates Antony Castro Pérez and Juan Samuel Ogando Solís, members of the police patrol.
At the time of the incident, the couple were traveling along the Duarte highway, at Kilometer 45, together with Ramírez Lamais and Carlos José Pérez Báez, who was unharmed, in a white Kia car, model K5. The police patrol fired at them in violation of all police protocols.
Colonel Maríñez Lora is accused of violating several articles of the Penal Code and Law 631-16 for the Control and Regulation of Weapons, Ammunition and Related Materials.
Mariñez Lora defends his innocence. He denies having given an order to shoot to his men.
Read more in Spanish:
Attorney General Office
Listin Diario
21 April 2021