Hopes that a Carson City murder suspect was in custody in Kansas City were dashed when federal agents confirmed the man they held was not Usiel Mora, wanted here for the 1999 shooting death of Clint Jacobo.
Detective Cate Somers said Carson City investigators received a call Jan. 24 from the Kansas City FBI office. They believed Mora, now 21, was living in a Kansas City home that housed illegal immigrants and that he bragging about a murder.
"This guy had alluded to being in trouble on the West Coast," Somers said.
Photographs faxed to the Sheriff's Department further buoyed Somers' hopes that Mora was close to being apprehended. But Tuesday, following a raid on the home, agents told Somers the fingerprints didn't match Mora's on file from a juvenile arrest.
"We really thought we had him," she said.
On Aug. 6, 1999, Jacobo, his brother Luis and two underage cousins were walking east from the Pinon Plaza when they ran into Mora, Jorge Torres-Reyes and a female companion. Jacobo's cousin said he confronted Torres-Reyes about a stereo he may have stolen from him, and the groups argued.
All three of the surviving victims reported Torres-Reyes first pulled out a gun.
"Torres took some type of gun from around the waist of his pants and started shooting," an investigators summarized in a report.
Witnesses said once the shooting began, Mora also pulled out a weapon and opened fire.
One victim said when the shooting began, all four were hit and fell. Mora said he could see the shooters walking away and continuing to shoot at them.
The girl walking with Torres-Reyes and Mora said when it was over, "Usiel turned around and looked at me and, like, said ... like the look on his face of regret."
Clint Jacobo was struck first, receiving a fatal shot to his abdomen. He was also hit three times in the left leg. Somers said so many shots were fired, that when Jacobo was taken to Carson-Tahoe Hospital, "bullets were just falling out of his clothing."
The others received serious gunshot wounds and recovered, she said.
An anonymous tip led investigators nine days later to the .22- and .32- caliber weapons found in the field south of the shooting.
They had rusted from the rain that fell the night Jacobo was killed. Somers said the guns were possibly stolen earlier in the week.
Warrants were issued for the arrests of Mora and Torres-Reyes.
Two women, Lorene Tello and Korinna Archuleta, were arrested as accessories to murder.
Archuleta told investigators, after the shootings she and Tello picked Torres-Reyes and Mora up from a business on Fifth Street. Archuleta said she knew the boys through her boyfriend, but wasn't particularly fond of Torres-Reyes.
She said she dropped the two off in Mound House at Tello's mother's house, and that was the last time she heard from them. Investigators believe Archuleta also disposed of bullets for the two.
Tello pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor early in the case and was sentenced to one year suspended in jail and three years' probation. The status of Archuleta's case is unclear.
Somers said investigators received information shortly after the murder that Torres-Reyes and Mora had fled to Mexico. Federal warrants of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution were issued on Aug. 13, 1999.
Somers said she is still investigating the case, and any information on possible locations of the suspects will be followed up.
Anyone seeing one of the suspects should not approach him, but contact the Carson City Sheriff's Department at (775) 887-2020, ext. 1400; Secret Witness at (775) 322-4900; or the Secret Witness Hispanic hotline at (775) 721-7727. Callers to Secret Witness do not have to give a name in order to collect a reward.
Contact F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.
