SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake police on Thursday announced that a third arrest has been made in a 2001 murder case.
An arrest warrant was issued in 3rd District Court for Jeffry Henry Suarez, 32, of Murray, charging him with murder, a first-degree felony. He was arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail Thursday on $1 million bail.
In 2013, Vincent James Thomas, 34, and Raymond Daniel Benally, 33, were also charged with murder for the same case. The three are accused of participating in the Sept. 28, 2001, shooting death of Leonel Perales.
Witnesses told police that a gray Chevy Celebrity followed a Honda Accord near 300 East and 700 South on that night. At 700 East and 700 South, someone in the Honda fired several shots at the Chevy. Homicide detectives later found six shell casings in the road and discovered that two bullets had been shot into the rear of the Honda and went through the back seat.
Benally was later identified as the driver of the Chevy and Thomas was the front seat passenger, according to court records.
Thomas was believed to be the shooter, the charges state. Investigators also discovered that several shots were fired at a BMW prior to shooting the Honda.
When charges were filed in 2013 against Benally and Thomas, Benally was already serving a 2007 sentence in the Utah State Prison on a conviciton of attempted theft by receiving stolen property and discharging a firearm from a vehicle, among other charges. Thomas was serving a federal prison sentence in Wisconsin.
In February, Benally pleaded guilty to an amended charge of manslaughter, a second-degree felony. He received a suspended prison sentence and was placed on probation.
A "witness" testified in Benally's case that Suarez was in the back seat of the Chevy on the night Perales was shot, according to charging documents. Suarez "was holding the gun used in the homicide" and "shot in the direction of the vehicle prior to the homicide" before passing the gun to Thomas "who then fired several shots into the victim vehicle," charging documents state.
A trial for Thomas is scheduled to begin Jan. 26.
A motive for the shooting was not revealed in charging documents. Police declined comment Thursday on whether they knew about Suarez or if he was ever a suspect prior to the testimony given in Benally's case.
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