Judge orders murder trial for soldier in shootings

A Fort Carson soldier will stand trial in the June shooting deaths of two Colorado Springs residents who were hanging a garage-sale sign, a judge decided Thursday.

After the daylong hearing, 4th Judicial District Judge Thomas Kennedy ordered Pfc. Jomar Dionisio Falu-Vives, 24, to stand trial on first-degree murder charges in the June double homicide and other felonies in connection with a May shooting that severely injured an Army captain.

But no evidence surfaced Thursday that would point to a reason why Cesar Ramirez-Ibanez, 21, and Amairany Cervantes, 18, were gunned down with a high-powered military rifle June 6 on the corner of Monterey Road and Carmel Drive.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Diana May presented the testimony of a ballistics expert who confirmed the bullets used to kill Ramirez-Ibanez and Cervantes came from an AK-47 rifle found at Falu-Vives' apartment on Ralphs Ridge, which was near both shooting scenes.

That gun also fired the two shots on May 26 that shattered the hip and leg of Capt. Zachary Szody, who was standing on the corner of Monterey Road and Flintshire Street, testified ballistics expert Cordell Brown.

El Paso County Coroner Dr. Robert Bux testified Cervantes was shot in the back five times and one of those bullets "shredded the organs in her abdomen." Ramirez-Ibanez was shot four times, once through the heart, and died almost instantly, Bux testified.
The victims were shot within view of Ramirez-Ibanez's girlfriend and Cervantes' sister, Nataly Cervantes, and her 5-year-old boy. They were in a truck parked at that corner.

A bit of luck helped crack the case, testified Colorado Springs Detective Bradley Pratt.

Army Spc. Rodolfo Torres-Gandarilla, 21, who faces an attempted murder charge in the Szody shooting, was contacted by police regarding an unrelated firearms incident in the city July 5.

Officers found his camera, which had a picture of Falu-Vives holding an AK-47 in front of his dark-blue Chevy Tahoe, Pratt testified. Before she died, Cervantes told police the shots came from a dark-colored sport utility vehicle.

Torres-Gandarilla later told police he was in the car when Falu-Vives fired at Szody, according to police. Witnesses also put Torres-Gandarilla in the Tahoe the night of the double homicide. He waived his preliminary hearing Thursday after his attorney told Kennedy he is in negotiations with prosecutors.

Pratt was able to identify Falu-Vives from the picture and later found another man who was in the Tahoe that night, Alonso Hernandez.

Hernandez said he was sitting in the front seat when Falu-Vives pulled up to the corner, requested the rifle, then fired across him at the victims on the corner, Pratt said.

Hernandez was afraid to go to police because Falu-Vives told the men later that night:

"We're in it now. We're family because we've killed together," Pratt testified.

Falu-Vives' attorney, Tom Hammond, of Denver, argued to Kennedy that no evidence supports the first-degree murder charge because there was no premeditation.

"This appears to have happened so quickly there was no time to deliberate," said Hammond, arguing the evidence supports only second-degree murder charges.

Falu-Vives, who is being held without bond, is scheduled to enter pleas to the charges Jan. 30.