Carson Iraq vet suspected in double slaying

One of two Fort Carson soldiers arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in a May shooting is also a suspect in a double homicide in June in southeast Colorado Springs, a prosecutor said in court Monday.

Pfc. Jomar Dionisio Falu-Vives, 24, was arrested July 30 on suspicion of attempted murder in the shooting of a fellow Fort Carson soldier May 5 near Monterey Road and Flintshire Street.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Diana May filed 10 charges against Falu-Vives on Monday, including assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder.

When Falu-Vives' attorney, Rick Levinson, asked for a reduction of his $500,000 bond, May told the judge he's also suspected in the June 6 slayings.

The same AK-47 assault rifle used in the May 5 shooting was used in the June 6 shooting deaths of Cesar Ramirez Ibanez, 21, and Amairany Cervantes, 18, near Monterey Road and Carmel Drive, May told 4th Judicial District Judge David Prince.

The locations of the shootings are less than a mile apart, and Falu-Vives lives in an apartment complex on Ralphs Ridge, between the two, according to Colorado Springs police.

Fort Carson Spc. Rodolfo Torres-Gandarilla, 20, was also charged Monday in the May 5 shooting.

Prince refused to reduce Falu-Vives' bond, and said he would take a similar request from Torres-Gandarilla's attorney, David Foley, under advisement.

In the May 5 shooting, according to an arrest affidavit, Army Capt. Zachary Szody was standing at Flintshire Street and Monterey Road when a white sedan drove by and several shots were fired. Szody was hit in the buttocks and knee.

Falu-Vives and Torres-Gandarilla served in Baghdad together with the 2nd Battalion of the 12th Infantry Regiment during the 2007 offensive to reclaim the city from insurgents. Both men were decorated with the Army Commendation medal and returned to Fort Carson with their unit Dec. 20.

Three other former soldiers from the battalion, Louis Bressler, Kenneth Eastridge and Bruce Bastien Jr., were charged late last year in the deaths of two Fort Carson soldiers.

Eastridge and Bastien pleaded guilty last month, agreeing to testify against Bressler when he stands trial in September, and face prison terms for their roles in the killings.

Army sources Monday said the cases aren't related and there is no indication that Falu-Vives and Torres-Gandarilla know the other three.

Szody told Princeon Monday that he spent several weeks in the hospital, and he still needs a walker to get around. He urged Prince not to lower the bond "for the safety of myself and everyone in the Colorado Springs community."

"This incident was an act of terrorism in my community," said Sgt. 1st Class William Jacobs, who was also shot at May 5 but not hit.

Witnesses to the June 6 double homicide saw "four or five" Hispanic males in a dark colored SUV, the affidavit states.

In early July, Torres-Gandarilla was arrested on suspicion of illegal discharge of a firearm. Officers recovered a camera that had a picture of four men, one holding an AK-47. Torres-Gandarilla told police Falu-Vives owned the gun and a dark colored SUV seen in the pictures.

When police got a search warrant for Falu-Vives' apartment, they found the AK-47. Ballistics tests showed that rifle was used to shoot Szody and was also used to kill Ibanez and Cervantes, according to the affidavit.

Falu-Vives told investigators someone could have taken the rifle from his apartment while he was out of town, used it in a crime, then returned it, according to the affidavit. Levinson said in court his client only fired the rifle at Rampart Range.

Army officials said they are concerned the new allegations could further taint the image of soldiers in the community.

"This is not what the Army is about, and this is not what the warriors of (the unit) are about and we will not tolerate it," said Maj. T.G. Taylor, a spokesman for the 4 th Brigade Combat team, 4th Infantry Division, which oversees the battalion.

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Military reporter Tom Roeder contributed to this report.