Bethlehem man faces homicide charge

Officials say he was found with knife as victim bled

A Bethlehem man has been charged with homicide and was accused of fatally stabbing another man early Friday after dropping off a woman with whom they spent the evening, according to the Northampton County district attorney’s office.

Jose Luis Leon, 30, is charged with criminal homicide, possessing instruments of crime, possession of fentanyl and aggravated assault for allegedly punching two police officers inside the Bethlehem Police Department cellblock.

Leon was arrested around 1 a.m. after officers on patrol found him holding a large kitchen knife and standing near the victim, Elson Aviles, 35, of Bethlehem, as he lay bleeding on the pavement in front of the woman’s house in the 900 block of East Fourth Street, a news release from the district attorney’s office says.

Police also found an SUV, later identified as belonging to Aviles, crashed into a tree near Hill and Mechanic streets around the same time police discovered Aviles in the street. The interior of the car was covered in blood around the driver’s seat and steering wheel and a trail of blood droplets leading away from the crash and toward the woman’s house, the district attorney’s office said.

Aviles was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital-Fountain Hill where he underwent emergency surgery but died of his injuries. Leon was arraigned before District Judge Vivian Zumas and held without bail, according to court records.

According to the district attorney’s office:

Police spoke with a woman who told them she had been with Aviles and Leon earlier that night. She and Aviles planned to go to Wind Creek Casino and Aviles picked her up with Leon already in his car. After stopping for gas around 11:45 p.m., they drove to the casino and went inside. After a few minutes at the casino, Leon told Aviles he needed to get something from Aviles’ car and asked for the keys.

Aviles noticed that Leon had not returned after 15 or 20 minutes and walked outside with the woman to look for him and found that his car was gone. Aviles called Leon multiple times on his cellphone but Leon did not answer. The woman told police that Leon eventually returned Aviles’ call and said he was headed back to the casino.

When Leon returned, he got out of the driver’s seat and into the back seat. Aviles and the woman got into the front and Aviles drove toward the woman’s house, where Leon told Aviles to drop her off.

As the woman got out of the car, she heard Aviles ask Leon, “Where am I taking you?” Leon replied, “just drive and I’ll tell you where to take me,” the woman told police.

The woman said that after she went inside her home, she heard yelling in the street, which she recognized as Aviles. She used her cellphone to look at images from a motion-activated security camera and saw a blood-covered man she recognized as Aviles walking past her house. She said she saw Leon walking in the same direction in the street.

When she looked out the window, she saw police officers with Aviles and Leon and she approached them.

Video from a Bethlehem surveillance camera showed Aviles walking south on State Street around the corner from the woman’s house and Leon walking next to him holding the knife.

Leon was sentenced to 2 ½-5 years in prison in 2010 after pleading guilty in Berks County Court to aggravated assault and robbery. He was sentenced in Northampton County to 6 months to a year in jail for resisting arrest in 2013 and 1-3 years in prison for terroristic threats in 2017.

A spokesperson for the district attorney’s office did not respond to questions about the case but said the investigation is ongoing. An autopsy is scheduled for Aviles on Saturday.

“Elson was extremely caring, funny and talented,” said Tina Marie Alio of Warrington, to whom Aviles was a family friend for nearly 10 years. “He was an amazing hair stylist and barber. He always put other people before himself. He just wanted to be the best he could be for his [five] kids.

“I don’t know why Elson was killed, but he was the type who would have tried to help the man who killed him if he could have,” Alio said.