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An Edinburg man involved in a murder where the victim’s body was found inside a burning vehicle pleaded guilty Monday and has been sentenced.

Josias Hernandez, 22, pleaded guilty to one count of murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the death of 37-year-old Teodoro Martinez on March 25, 2022, court records show.

This comes nearly a year after his co-defendant, 24-year-old Jorge Arredondo Jr., pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 40 years in prison last August.

Two other co-defendants, 30-year-old Nallely Ruby Belmares and 21-year-old Juan Antonio Duenes, remain in custody and are facing one charge of capital murder each.

At 12:27 a.m. on that day, Martinez’s girlfriend called police from a residence located in rural Edcouch reporting that four masked men armed with rifles took Martinez at gunpoint after a red vehicle rammed the gate and the door to the residence causing it to be forced open, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Thirty minutes later, Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputies responded to a second location west of Val Verde Road on Mill 22 ½ Road in reference to shots fired and a vehicle on fire.

Once there, deputies found a red GMC Envoy engulfed in flames and saw a body inside. They also recovered spent .223 caliber casings around the vehicle.

Martinez died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Investigators tracked the sale of the Envoy to its last owner who stated that they traded the vehicle to Aracely Arredondo, who is Jorge Arredondo’s aunt, for another on March 23, 2022.

“During the vehicle trade, Aracely was accompanied by her boyfriend, Hector Manuel Gonzalez … who stated they were going to burn the vehicle,” the affidavit said.

A man said during the vehicle trade that they “were going to make the vehicle disappear,” according to a news release from the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office.

Aracely’s phone records show that she was in communication with a phone that belonged to Belmares at the time of the alleged kidnapping and murder, and indicate that she was in the area at the time of the crime, according to the affidavit.

Jorge’s phone records show he was also involved in the vehicle trade, according to the release, which wasn’t mentioned in the affidavits.

The release states that Jorge was seen on surveillance video driving by Martinez’s house with an unknown person and pointing at it.

Belmares told police that her boyfriend, Jorge, had the phone at the time of the murder.

Aracely and Jorge’s familial link resulted in his arrest. Investigators said he provided a voluntary statement admitting to participating in the crime for money and implicated Aracely, Gonzalez, Belmares and her neighbors, Hernandez and Duenes.

Currently, Belmares is scheduled for a jury trial in September while Duenes may plead guilty July.

The post Edinburg man sentenced in Edcouch man’s 2022 kidnapping, murder appeared first on MyRGV.com.