Murder victim’s brother testifies on missing gun
The brother of one of the victims killed in the 2005 “La Mesa” murders testified Tuesday that a .38 caliber revolver went missing from the back office at R.C. Liquor sometime before the murders occurred.
Lionel Rios, who worked at the liquor store back then, was one of several prosecution witnesses to take the stand on the 17th day of the capital murder trial of Preston Strong, who is accused of killing a family of six — including four children.
Under direct examination by prosecutor Karolyn Kacsorowski of the Yuma County Attorney’s Office, Rios said that his brother, Luis, also kept a .22 automatic and a rifle in the back office of the liquor store along with the revolver.
A firearms expert previously testified during the trial that the bullets recovered from the victims who had been shot had been fired from a .38 caliber pistol, and that most weapons of that caliber are revolvers, not semi-automatic.
While he wasn’t sure when the revolver went missing, he said he knows it was gone because his brother, who operated the store, had asked him if he had taken it.
In the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Maria Elena Cruz, who is presiding over the trial, Rios also testified that while Strong did not have access to the office, there were occasions when he had been left alone, when his brother had to go tend to a customer.
When asked by Kacsorowski how often Strong, who was Luis’ best friend, was at the liquor store, Rios said it was at least once every day. The gun used in the murder was never recovered.
He also testified that Strong would often borrow money from his brother, and that he had seen him cash several personal checks at the liquor store that his brother wrote him, totaling about $40,000.
“I can’t remember the amounts, but they were big,” Rios said. “It was in the thousands.”
On the night of the murder Rios said in his testimony that he tried calling his brother twice around 7 p.m. because the salesman who sold the liquor store phone cards was at the liquor store and he wanted to know how many he should buy.
While his brother did not return his call, Rios testified that 9-year-old Inez Newman called him from Luis’ cell phone about 10 minutes later.
“I thought it seemed strange at the time,” he said. “I had never spoken to her before on his phone. She said he would call me back when he had the chance.”
Rios testified that he knew his brother was at a softball game and just figured he was playing at the time and couldn’t talk.
Kacsorowski, using his phone records, also questioned Rios about several calls between him and Strong the night of the murders.
Rios testified that Strong had called him at 8:30 p.m. the night of the murders asking to borrow $500 or $600, but he told him he couldn’t give him any money without his brother’s permission, so Luis would have to call him and tell him it was OK.
While he couldn’t remember what he and Strong had spoken about in some of the other calls, Rios said he called Strong at 8:59 p.m. trying to find out what was happening at his brother’s residence.
Rios said Strong also called him at 9:56 p.m., while he was at the scene, and he told Strong about what was happening.
Dr. Bruce Parks, who worked at the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office in 2005, also took the stand on Tuesday, testifying about the autopsies he performed on 29-year-old Adrienne Heredia, 9-yearold Inez Newman and 6-year-old Danny Heredia, the youngest victim.
Parks stated that Adrienne Heredia and Newman died due to asphyxiation. While he could not be certain what was used to suffocate them, he said it could have been done by covering their faces with something like plastic wrap or stran- gled with soft material.
Danny Heredia died of a gunshot wound to the head. Parks testified that when his body arrived at the medical examiner’s office for the autopsy his wrists and ankles were still bound with electrical cords and he had a T-shirt tied around his neck with two white plastic bags hanging from it.
The toxicology reports for all three, he added, were negative for alcohol and drugs.
A latent print examiner, who worked at the Arizona Department of Public Safety Crime Lab in 2005, had testified on Monday that Strong’s fingerprints were found on two plastic bags recovered from the master bedroom of the home, where the bodies of Adrienne and Danny were found.
A fingerprint of Strong’s left middle finger was found on one plastic bag, while his right pinkie finger and right thumb were found on the other.
Strong, who is represented by attorneys Raymond Hanna of Prescott and William Fox, of the Yuma County Public Defender’s Office, is charged with six counts of first-degree murder, one count of armed robbery and one count of burglary.
He is also currently serving two life-term sentences with no chance for parole for the 2007 murder of Yuma physician Satinder Gill.
On June 24, 2005, at about 8:25 p.m., Yuma police were dispatched to 2037 E. La Mesa St. after several people called 911 to report that shots had been fired and a person was yelling for help.
Upon arrival, officers found a man later identified as Rios in the backyard with multiple gunshot wounds.
Inside, police found the bodies of Adrienne Heredia and her four children — 13-year-old Andreas Crawford and 12-year-old Enrique Bedoya, 9-year-old Inez Newman and 6-yearold Danny Heredia. Some of the victims had been bound and strangled, and some had been shot.