In the summer of 2017, the life of 27-year-old Angel Luis Mendez Crespo was tragically cut short in a motel room in the Woodlawn area of Baltimore County, Maryland. On the afternoon of Saturday, June 17, an employee of the Motel 6 on Whitehead Court made a grim discovery. Inside one of the rooms lay the bodies of Mendez Crespo and another man, 30-year-old Edgardo Castro Estremera.
Both men had been fatally shot.
Investigators from the Baltimore County Police Department were called to the scene and immediately began piecing together the events that led to the double homicide. An autopsy would later confirm that both Mendez Crespo and Estremera died from multiple gunshot wounds. The focus of the investigation quickly turned to identifying those responsible for the brutal slayings. A key piece of evidence emerged from the digital trail left behind on Mendez Crespo's cell phone.
Detectives examined text message conversations on the victim's phone, which led them to two individuals: Derrick Simmons and Terica Evans. Further investigation, including the review of surveillance camera footage from near the Motel 6, placed a vehicle connected to the suspects in the vicinity of the motel around the time the murders were believed to have occurred. This evidence was substantial enough for police to obtain arrest warrants for both Simmons and Evans on charges of first-degree murder.
Following a six-day jury trial, both Derrick Simmons and Terica Evans were found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder. They were also convicted on charges of robbery with a deadly weapon, use of a handgun in the commission of a crime of violence, and illegal possession of a regulated firearm. For their roles in the deaths of Angel Luis Mendez Crespo and Edgardo Castro Estremera, both Simmons and Evans received consecutive life sentences.
