These are four men who had allegedly agreed to attack a woman who was visiting the municipality to hold a wake over her deceased partner. However, the alleged hitman apparently got confused and shot at the wrong victims.
At the request of the Attorney General’s Office, a judge imposed a prison sentence on Jairo Andrés Miranda Ramírez, José Miguel Leal Rodríguez, Leonardo de Jesús Barraza Castillo and Jorge Luis Valderrama Cuba, for their alleged participation in the murder of a religious pastor and three members of his family, on December 29, 2024, in Aguachica (Cesar).
A prosecutor appointed to the Dirección de Apoyo Territorial (Territorial Support Directorate) charged these people with aggravated homicide; and manufacturing, trafficking, possession of firearms, accessories, parts or ammunition. They did not plead guilty to the charges.
The evidence shows that the four men traveled to Aguachica from different points in Norte de Santander. The purpose was to attack a woman who was in the municipality to hold a wake over her deceased partner who had been murdered in El Banco (Magdalena), on December 27, 2024.
The defendants arrived in the town, bought two motorcycles, and took them to the parking lot of a hotel. The next day, they used them to locate and pursue the target of the criminal act. After establishing that she was in a restaurant, Leal Rodríguez allegedly got out of one of the vehicles, got inside the establishment and shot a young woman who had similar characteristics to the woman he was looking for, and against her three companions.
When he realized he had attacked the wrong people, he left the place, firing the firearm and escaping on the motorcycle. The pastor, his wife and daughter died in the attack; while his son was taken to a hospital and died two days later.
During the investigation, it was established that Barraza Castillo and another possible accomplice were in charge of monitoring and alerting about the movements of the woman they intended to kill. Meanwhile, Valderrama Cuba, who was serving a house arrest, allegedly transported Leal Rodríguez, the alleged hitman, on a motorcycle.
For his part, Miranda Ramírez apparently monitored the entire criminal act from a private vehicle.
The information contained in this press release corresponds to the narration of the objective news provided by the officials in charge of carrying out criminal investigations within the Office of the Attorney General. By the time this communication is disclosed, the legal status of the people mentioned is still pending to be resolved by the competent judicial authority, always under the presumption of innocence contemplated by Article 29 of the Political Constitution and Article 7 of Law 906 of 2004.