The family of a pregnant Texas woman, killed in what investigators believe was a narcotics deal “that went bad,” insisted on Thursday she didn’t use drugs and was unduly uninfluenced by the man killed alongside her.
San Antonio police arrested two men in connection with the slayings of Savanah Soto, 18, and Matthew Guerra, 22, who were found shot to death inside his car just after Christmas.
Christopher Preciado, 19, was charged with capital murder while his father, 53-year-old Ramon Preciado, was charged with abuse of a corpse for allegedly helping to move the bodies, San Antonio police said.
“It appears to be a narcotics-related deal that went bad,” San Antonio police Sgt. Washington Moscoso told reporters early Thursday.
Soto, who was pregnant and due to be induced just before she disappeared, did not do drugs and was even sensitive to second-hand tobacco smoke, her brother Jordan Corona told NBC News.
The grieving brother said he has no knowledge of Guerra dabbling in narcotics — but worried about his sister’s relationship with her abusive boyfriend.
“My sister was a little sweetheart. She didn’t even like being near smoke,” Corona said. “I guess it was just one of those wrong-place, wrong-time situations. She doesn’t get around that type of stuff (drugs). Of course her boyfriend was the way he was but as far as her (involvement with drugs), no.”
Guerra was arrested on Christmas Day of 2022 for beating Soto.
A doorbell camera captured Guerra kicking Soto in the face after screaming at her, “F–k you b–ch, you betrayed me,” according to a San Antonio police report shared with NBC News.
“(Guerra) then began to punch (Soto) in the face with a closed fist 4 times on the left side of the face,” the report added. Soto told detectives that Guerra later stood over her and kicked her “in the face multiple times,” the police report stated.
“It was an abusive relationship, we didn’t approve of it,” Corona said of his sister and her boyfriend. “We tried to tell her, ‘That’s not what you need.’ Of course at that age, you feel like you know everything. Love is powerful at that age. We couldn’t separate them.”
Guerra was placed on probation after he pleaded no contest to assault causing bodily injury on a domestic partner, court records showed.
Guerra’s defense attorney Christopher Castro said the couple was “together as soon as they could be again.”
“I met Savanah and she seemed nice,” he said.
Castro also said he has no knowledge of his former client having issues with drugs. The couple seemed to be on good terms despite the disturbing elements of the Christmas Day 2022 incident.
“I can tell you every time I called Matthew, Savanah was with him,” said Castro.
Soto and Guerra were found on Dec. 26 in a Kia Optima belonging to the boyfriend, but the alleged murders took place five days earlier, just before midnight on Dec. 21, police said.
Investigators are unsure where the alleged murders happened, but police said that they were gunned down and then moved to the location where they were found. Soto’s cell phone played a pivotal role in leading police to the suspects’ car, officials said.
“It gives us a little peace knowing my sister’s little family, that the person who killed them, is going toward justice,” said Corona, a 30-year-old warehouse supervisor. “Nothing will fill the emptiness of not having her and my nephew around.”
Soto’s slaying came 19 months after her 15-year-old brother, Ethan Soto, was also gunned down in what has been described as a dispute over money.
It wasn’t immediately clear Thursday afternoon if Christopher and Ramon Preciado had hired or been assigned attorneys.
It’s still too early in the process before prosecutors decide whether to charge Christopher Preciado with the death of Soto’s unborn child, who was to be named Fabian, Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said in a statement Thursday.
“Under Texas law, an unborn child is included in the definition of a person. Therefore, Christopher Preciado can be charged with an additional count of capital murder for the death of baby Fabian,” Gonzales said. “The District Attorney’s Office will await the filing of the complete case investigation in order to thoroughly review the facts and make the appropriate charging decisions.”
Soto’s family hopes charges in the death of Soto’s unborn child will come soon.
“We’re burying her with her baby in her arms,” Corona said. “It’s a human. We’re not laying her to rest with the baby in her stomach. It was a full-term baby. The baby will be in her arms.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
