ELGIN, Texas — A man has been arrested after deputies say two men were found with gunshot wounds inside an SUV along the highway near Elgin, Texas, earlier in April.
According to the Travis County Sheriff's Office, at 1:56 a.m. on April 9, the office received a 911 call reporting that two people had been shot. When deputies arrived at the 17000 block of FM 1100, they found an SUV parked along the road, just down the road from Elgin High School.
Inside the SUV, deputies found two men, each with at least one gunshot wound to their heads. Raul Molina Hernandez, 44, of Manor, Texas, died on the scene. The other man, 31-year-old Leonel Ayala Gamino of Port Arthur, Texas, was taken to a hospital. Gamino died on April 13.
After detectives spoke with the family and friends of the two men who died, they connected a suspect to the crime. Abel Bermudez-Ornelas was arrested and charged with murder on April 16. His bail has been set at $500,000.
The Travis County Sheriff's Office spoke with the witnesses wives, who said they knew the men had been drinking with Bermudez-Ornelas that night. When they did not return home, they went searching for them, eventually finding them in the parked vehicle with its flashers on.
Officials obtained surveillance footage from a nearby residence, which showed the parked vehicle. In the video, you can see a subject exiting the vehicle with a can in one hand and a cigarette in the other. The figure puts the can on the roof of the vehicle and pulls out what appears to be a handgun from their waistband.
The subject walks around the vehicle and manipulates the handgun multiple times as vehicles drive by, officials said. They also noted that he appears to urinate on one of the vehicle's tires, eventually walking away from the scene.
The sheriff's office also noted that no other subject exits the vehicle or appears on camera before the wives arrived and called 911. They also flag down a passing motorist, who assisted with first aid until officials arrived.
According to the suspect's arrest affidavit, one of the victims was accused of sexually assaulting a family member of Bermudez-Ornelas. A subject close to this alleged victim also reportedly said that the suspect had made threats to kill one of the victims because of the alleged assaults.
Officials said the suspect's wife reported that she was not aware of these allegations. She also said that she found her husband in his vehicle parked outside of their home that night, too drunk to come inside on his own. She said she had called him around 1 a.m. when she didn't hear music outside.
The sheriff's office said it obtained cell phone data from the suspect's phone, which indicated he got a ride after leaving the crime scene. They also noted a Google search along the lines of, "with a person's saliva, can I tell I murdered someone?" Call records indicate missed calls from one of the victims' wives, as well as connected calls with the suspect's wife around 1:43 a.m.
Officials added that they found Modelo beer cans and 9mm rounds inside the vehicle at the crime scene.
The same night those two men were shot, another man was shot in an unrelated incident in Del Valle when he and his father chased down a burglary suspect.
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