Aiexpress – An Alamosa man pleaded guilty on Monday to the murder and dismemberment of five people in a horrible crime that shook the San Luis Valley during the first summer and fall of COVID.
Prosecutors say Adre Baroz, 29, whose nickname was “Psycho,” committed the murders over a two-month period from August 25 to November 13, 2020. Korina Arroyo, 31, of Monte Vista; Selena Esquibel, 19, of Alamosa; 24-year-old Xavier Zeven Garcia of Saguache; Myron Martinez, 31, of Del Norte; and Shayla Hammel, 34, of Alamosa were brutally murdered and dumped on properties near the New Mexico border.
Baroz is accused of burning their remains in a pit on lonely ground in Los Sauses, a small town south of Alamosa. Prosecutors claimed that he burned them for so long that it was difficult to identify the bones. Baroz was arrested in New Mexico in November 2020 after the skeletal remains were discovered in two locations near Los Angeles.
Former Alamosa Police Chief Ken Anderson, who is now a Division Commander with the Alamosa County Sheriff’s Office, oversaw the investigation.
“This case had far-reaching consequences not only for Alamosa but for the entire San Luis Valley.” The fact that we’re getting justice restores confidence in all law enforcement officials,” he told The Denver Gazette on Monday. “It’s about damn time.”
Court processes took three and a half years to reach this position. According to prosecutors, the Alamosa Police Department, Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, as well as a forensic anthropologist and forensic odonatologists, gathered up to 50,000 papers during the investigation.
Baroz first pleaded not guilty due to insanity, but later retracted that plea.
In addition to the five murders, Baroz pleaded guilty to five counts of tampering with a deceased human corpse, two assault charges, and one act of kidnapping, for a total of thirteen crimes.
Two of his co-defendants, his brother Jullius, 33, and Francisco Ramirez, 41, pleaded guilty to murder-related crimes. They followed Baroz in front of 12th Judicial District Judge Michael Gonzales during a Monday afternoon procedure that lasted less than two hours.
Julius Baroz pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to murder Martinez. It entails a prison penalty of 16 to 25 years, with a five-year obligatory parole.
Ramirez pleaded guilty to three counts of tampering with dead bodies. Gonzales informed Ramirez that he would serve eight years in prison.
During the proceedings, Gonzales asked each guy if he understood the charges against him, and each admitted that he did.
Fred Johnson, chief trial deputy district attorney from the DA’s office in the 20th Judicial District, was appointed special prosecutor for the case.
Adre and Julius Baroz are scheduled to be sentenced on May 3 in the Alamosa County Courthouse. Victims’ families will be entitled to present victim impact statements to the judge at that time.
