A fifth person has been arrested and charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of a 2-year-old in Langley Park, Md., authorities said.
At a bail review hearing Monday afternoon, a Prince George’s County District Court judge continued to hold Granados-Trejo without bond. His attorney, a public defender, argued that Granados-Trejo should be granted pretrial release because he was “at the wrong place, at the wrong time” in the back seat of the alleged vehicle connected to the crime. Granados-Trejo did not exit the vehicle, his attorney said.
However, Prince George’s County Assistant State’s Attorney Giovanna Miller argued that Granados-Trejo has at least three failures to appear in court and uses multiple aliases to his name, which could present an issue with him returning to court. She also argued that evidence is sufficient and he is “a co-conspirator or an accomplice” in the crime.
Judge Donnaka Varner Lewis agreed.
“I find him to be a flight risk,” Lewis said. “Given the nature of the allegations ... one of several involved that resulted in the tragic death of a 2-year-old.”
Prince George’s County police have arrested and charged four others in connection with Jeremy’s killing — two teenage boys, a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old who are charged as adults, and Israel Fuentes Jr., 33, and Johnny Alejandro Turcios, 28.
According to an initial investigation, the fatal incident on Kanawha Street on Feb. 8 was the result of a shootout between two groups, which charging documents state a witness described as a territorial dispute over drug dealing. One of those groups involved Fuentes and Turcios, who got out of a stolen Ford Explorer, and the other group included the two teens, police said.
Jeremy and his mother were outside walking and were unintended targets, police said. Jeremy died at a hospital shortly after the shooting. His mother suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
According to charging documents, Granados-Trejo admitted during an interview with detectives to riding with Fuentes and Turcios during the shooting. He told police he saw Fuentes “shooting a firearm during the incident,” the charging documents said.
Granados-Trejo did not contact authorities about the shooting, according to the charging documents.
Police said in the charging documents evidence shows Granados-Trejo got into the stolen Ford Explorer with Fuentes, Turcios and a third person before the shooting.
Granados-Trejo then traveled with them to the crime scene and fled with the people in the car who shot and killed Jeremy, police said in the charging documents.
