Atwater men accused of killing man – and filming it

Three Atwater men were arrested on homicide charges after a woman came to police with a horrifying story: She said her ex-boyfriend had showed her a cellphone video of a man being killed.

According to the Merced County Sheriff’s Department, Dionicio Gutierrez-Salazar, 36, Francisco Alvarez, 24, and Alexis Eduardo Garcia-Jimenez, 19, have been booked into the Merced County jail.

Detectives say the three are responsible for killing a man, who has not been identified, then burning his body and dumping it in an orchard near Snelling.

Authorities believe the victim, a man in his late 30s or early 40s, was a roommate and friend of the three suspects. They were drinking Saturday night in a house outside Merced when an argument broke out, Sheriff Vern Warnke said.

The exact nature of the argument remained under investigation Wednesday afternoon.

Warnke described the incident as “cold and callous.”

“It’s just getting more bizarre,” Warnke told reporters Wednesday. “I’ve been with this department more than 36-plus years, and I guess I’m at the point where I’m never amazed anymore.”

Police say the suspects tied up the victim and stabbed him, recording the incident on a cellphone. The body was rolled up in a rug, then taken to an almond orchard on Keyes Road between Bledsoe and Montgomery, where it was burned, authorities said.

The incident came to light Tuesday morning when the woman went to the Merced Police Department and told officers what she had seen. Deputies identified the woman’s former boyfriend and conducted surveillance on the suspects. One of the suspects led investigators to the body, authorities said.

Investigators found evidence of a possible homicide at the home in the 4000 block of San Joaquin Court. They are examining phones to find the video, authorities said Wednesday.

Warnke said there was no evidence the video was posted anywhere online.

Sgt. Delray Shelton confirmed detectives are investigating Gutierrez-Salazar in connection with an unrelated homicide from 2013. Warnke also confirmed the possibility of a connection between Gutierrez-Salazar and the killing of a 71-year-old man in February 2013. In that case, Ramon Jimenez was shot and killed during what was believed to be a home-invasion robbery on Lombardy Avenue in Ballico.

Warnke said Gutierrez-Salazar’s name “came up several times during that investigation.” Warnke declined to elaborate on how they believe Gutierrez-Salazar may be connected to the Jimenez homicide case.

“We do believe there is a connection,” Shelton said. “He (Gutierrez-Salazar) is a suspect in that case, too.”

Rogallano Gonzalez Munoz, a suspected gunman in Jimenez’s death, was arrested in October 2013 and charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for a jury trial in December in Merced Superior Court.

This story was originally published September 9, 2015 at 12:27 PM with the headline "Atwater men accused of killing man – and filming it."