Murder charge dismissed against man accused in McAllen shooting
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A Mission man jailed on a homicide charge had his charge dismissed due to insufficient evidence, according to his attorney.
Luis Alberto Mondragon was arrested on March 27 in connection to a McAllen shooting that killed one person.
Court records show Mondragon was released from the Hidalgo County Jail on Wednesday.
Mondragon’s arrest was linked to the death of Raymundo Martinez-Gutierrez. According to previous reports, Martinez-Gutierrez died after the vehicle he was driving crashed into a business on Dec. 19, 2023, at the 2800 block of Business Highway 83 in McAllen.
READ ABOUT THE INITIAL ARREST HERE
Officers at the scene said there were multiple gunshot wounds on Martinez-Gutierrez. Prior to the crash, he was seen leaving a domestic disturbance at the 2700 block of Date Palm Avenue where he had been shot, according to previous reports.
The criminal complaint against Mondragon identified Jose Geovani Ipina-Rosales and Eliezer Morales as the suspects who “chased Raymundo in a white Ford Expedition, cut him off in his silver Mazda 3, and shot him from the front passenger side.”
A family member and witness said they saw Mondragon enter the vehicle that chased Martinez-Gutierrez, according to the complaint.
“That’s really all they had, there was nothing else to link [Mondragon] to these two individuals as far as criminal intent,” Mondragon’s attorney, Samuel Reyes, said. “My client was sort of a bystander that got caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Reyes provided to Channel 5 News a copy of the dismissal order against this client, which cited insufficient evidence as the reason for the dismissal and was signed on Tuesday by a McAllen municipal court judge.
Mondragon, who is undocumented, has been released to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be deported, Reyes said.
Jose Geovani Ipina-Rosales and Eliezer Morales are not listed in Hidalgo County jail records, indicating they are still on the run.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Ipina-Rosales and Morales are urged to contact McAllen Crime Stoppers at 956-687-8477.
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