On July 17, 2016, a violent double homicide shook the community of Saint Joseph, Missouri, claiming the life of 25-year-old Raymond Gonzales Ortiz. The Sunday morning shooting occurred on Safari Drive, where law enforcement officers arrived to find a grisly scene indicative of a targeted attack. Ortiz, a Hispanic male, was discovered alongside another victim, 22-year-old Kevin Villegas-Melendez, inside a van that had been riddled with bullets.
Investigators later recovered approximately 50 shell casings near the vehicle, suggesting that the perpetrators had unleashed a barrage of gunfire in what prosecutors would later describe as an execution-style killing. There was no evidence to suggest that either Ortiz or Melendez had been armed or had returned fire during the ambush, which forced nearby residents to flee for cover.
The investigation into the deaths quickly led police to identify multiple individuals believed to be involved in the crime, which authorities suspected was linked to a turf war between rival groups. Five suspects were eventually taken into custody and charged in connection with the murders. The group of defendants included Luis Omar Robles-Vargas, Raymond Jimenez-Becebi, Omar Martinez Velez, Alexi Martinez-Andino, and Luz A. Figueroa-Castillo. The legal proceedings revealed a coordinated effort behind the violence, with the charges initially including first-degree murder for some of the accused before plea agreements were reached.
As the cases moved through the court system, the defendants faced varying degrees of culpability for their roles in the shooting. Luis Omar Robles-Vargas, who had originally faced two counts of first-degree murder, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in January 2019 and was subsequently sentenced to sixteen years in prison. Raymond Jimenez-Becebi also pleaded guilty to second-degree murder earlier in the proceedings. The remaining three defendants—Omar Martinez Velez, Alexi Martinez-Andino, and Luz A. Figueroa-Castillo—admitted to their parts in the plot by pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder. The resolution of these cases brought a measure of legal closure to a violent event that had deeply impacted the local community.
