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Grand jury indicts suspect in Leesburg murder
A 20-year-old man who is in the United States illegally from Mexico was indicted March 10 by a Loudoun County grand jury for first-degree murder and use of a firearm in a felony.Narciso Landero-Pons was charged in the Jan. 16 slaying of Leesburg resident Jose Eduardo Santos-Machado, 27, on Woodberry Road in northeast Leesburg. Santos-Machado was found shot to death inside of his car, which was still running.
Santos-Machado was in the country from El Salvador on a temporary work visa.
A jury trial is set for Aug. 18. If convicted, Landero-Pons could be sentenced to life in prison for the murder charge and a mandatory three years in prison for the firearm charge.
A preliminary hearing March 6, which lasted nearly five hours, gave insight into what had transpired Jan. 16.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Sean Morgan called five witnesses to the stand to prove that the first-degree murder charge was warranted.
One of those was Oneyda Villacorta, Santos-Machado's girlfriend.
Villacorta, 29, testified through a court-appointed interpretor that she lived in an apartment on Fort Evans Road with her brother, sister-in-law, niece and Landero-Pons, whom she often referred to as “the Mexican” early in her testimony.
Villacorta gave a timeline of the evening of Jan. 16. She said that Landero-Pons got home around 7 p.m., took a shower and left. Then, around 8 p.m., Santos-Machado came to her apartment during his break from his job at Wal-Mart, which he often did. He ate dinner in her room, then left to go back to Wal-Mart.
Around 9:15 p.m., Villacorta said Landero-Pons returned to the apartment and said something to her that she did not comprehend fully. One of the words he used was "widow."
“I didn't answer [him],” Villacorta said. “I didn't pay much attention because I was on the phone.”
She said her family often paid no attention when Landero-Pons spoke.
“He talked nonsense, so we didn't pay attention to him,” Villacorta said. “He talked nonsense because I loved Jose.”
Villacorta said she had been in a relationship with Santos-Machado since she moved to Loudoun County from El Salvador more than three years ago. The two had grown up together in their native country.
Although Santos-Machado was her boyfriend, Villacorta said she had been having sexual intercourse with Landero-Pons about once a month for 10 months before Jan. 16. She never told Santos-Machado about her relationship with Landero-Pons.
“I didn't love [Landero-Pons]” Villacorta said, saying the physical relationship they had “wasn't really the truth.”
She also testified that she and her family have received three letters from Landero-Pons from the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center since his arrest. Villacorta threw away the first letter but turned the next two over to police. They were admitted into evidence.
After Villacorta testified, Morgan called Sgt. Jake Conner of the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office to the stand. Conner who speaks Spanish, translated an interview conducted with Landero-Pons shortly after his arrest.
“[Landero-Pons] told me that Oneyda liked Narciso, but Oneyda liked Jose more,” Conner said. “He did indicate that he was jealous.”
During the interview, Landero-Pons admitted to shooting Santos-Machado in the head, Conner testified.
“He told me that after the incident occurred, he went back to the apartment and told Oneyda what happened,” Conner said.
Conner went on to testify that Landero-Pons said that he took his bike and put it behind a tree near Woodberry Road, then walked back to Villacorta's apartment. When Santos-Machado walked outside of the apartment, Landero-Pons asked him for a ride to a place where he was “hoping to rent a room.”
After getting Santos-Machado to drive him to Woodberry Road, Landero-Pons said that he pulled the gun out to scare him and then shot him once. Afterward, Landero-Pons said he threw the gun away near the site and rode his bike back to the apartment, Conner said.
After the evidence was presented, Bonnie Hoffman, one of two public defenders representing Landero-Pons, made a motion for Loudoun County General District Court Judge Julia T. Cannon to strike the first-degree murder charge in favor of a second-degree murder charge.
Hoffman argued that the evidence presented did not show premeditation, a condition necessary for a first-degree murder charge. When Landero-Pons showed Santos-Machado the gun, it was just to scare him, Hoffman said.
Cannon denied the motion, siding with Morgan.
Contact the reporter at jrenn@timespapers.com
this is what Leesburg is coming to - illegals killing each other then using our tax dollars for a trial. Deport him - and then go clear out those apartments to see how many MORE illegals need to be ousted.
Posted by ATTITUDE
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