Eliud Montoya, a 41-year-old male, was a naturalized American citizen who worked as a tree trimmer in the Savannah, Georgia, area. His life was cut short on August 19, 2017, when he was found shot to death near his home in Garden City. The investigation into his death revealed it was not a random act of violence, but a meticulously planned murder-for-hire plot orchestrated to silence him.
Just two days before his murder, Montoya had filed a formal complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, blowing the whistle on a significant labor trafficking scheme.
Montoya had alleged that his supervisor, Pablo Rangel-Rubio, was exploiting undocumented workers by skimming from their paychecks, a scheme that had reportedly netted the perpetrators over $3.5 million over a decade. In retaliation for reporting this illegal activity, Pablo Rangel-Rubio arranged for his brother, Juan Rangel-Rubio, and another man, Higinio Perez-Bravo, to carry out the killing. On the day of the murder, Montoya was ambushed outside his home and shot multiple times in what authorities described as an 'execution-style slaying.'
The subsequent investigation, involving multiple law enforcement agencies including the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, quickly identified the three men as the primary suspects. All three were arrested and faced a host of federal charges, including conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, conspiracy to kill a witness, and murder-for-hire. The evidence presented during the legal proceedings detailed a premeditated plan to eliminate Montoya to protect their illicit enterprise.
The trials resulted in convictions for all three men. Juan Rangel-Rubio, the man who pulled the trigger, was sentenced to life in prison. His brother, Pablo Rangel-Rubio, the mastermind behind the plot, received a prison sentence of over 48 years. Higinio Perez-Bravo, who acted as the getaway driver, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In addition to the criminal proceedings, a civil lawsuit was filed by Montoya's family against his employer's parent company, Davey Tree Expert Company. In June 2025, a jury found the company negligent in their investigation of Montoya's whistleblower complaint and awarded his family a verdict of over $5 million.
