Suspect held in witness slaying (Press Enterprise 050406) SECOND ARREST: Police say he is a member of a San Bernardino Gang. A Third man still at large...

This is great News!! Good Work to the Law Enforcement Agencies Involved. It was really heroic of the Witness to come forward and testify against his fellow gang members. Unfortunately he didn't follow the rules of the Secret Witness program and left town. I guess he figured if the guys that he put in Prison were there he didn't have much to worry about but he was dead wrong. The friends and fellow Gang member's hunted the Witness down and slayed him, however due to the great Police work the Gang members responsible for the slaying are going to get there behind bars or possibly the death penalty.

BSR

Suspect held in witness slaying

SECOND ARREST: Police say he is a member of a San Bernardino gang. A third man is still at large.

10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, May 3, 2006

By DARRELL R. SANTSCHI
The Press-Enterprise

A second suspect in the slaying of a San Bernardino gang-trial witness was chased from a house in Perris on Tuesday night, then arrested several miles away as he hid in the backyard of a vacant house in Lake Elsinore, police said.

Malo Joseph Fernandez, 33, of San Bernardino, was booked into Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside on suspicion of kidnapping and murder and was expected to be transferred to West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

Beaumont police Lt. Mitch White said Fernandez is suspected in the killing of Melquiades Jose Rojas, 18.

Rojas was taken from his San Bernardino apartment April 2 and his bullet-riddled body was found two days later in Beaumont.

Another suspect in the killing, Daniel Diaz Robles, 20, of San Bernardino, was arrested April 19. Six days later, he pleaded not guilty to murder and kidnapping charges. Robles appeared briefly in San Bernardino County Superior Court on Wednesday. The judge scheduled an update for June 6.

A third man wanted on suspicion of kidnapping and slaying, Carlos Anthony Soto Jr., 20, of San Bernardino, is being sought by police.

All three suspects and Rojas were members of the San Bernardino street gang Westside Verdugos, authorities said.

Deputy San Bernardino County District Attorney Cheryl Kersey said last month that authorities believe the killing was in retaliation for Rojas' testimony earlier this year against two other members of the gang: Melecio Junior Reyes and James Daniel Fuentes. Both were convicted for the June 2003 murder of Francisco Javier Ferreira, 25, of San Bernardino. Reyes got 130 years to life and Fuentes got 50 years to life.

White said he and three other detectives from the Beaumont Police Department were following leads in Rojas' killing Tuesday when they drove to a house in Perris, where they saw Fernandez in a rented silver Nissan Sentra in front of the house.

White said an attempt was made to stop the car, but it fled.

White said officers found Fernandez in the backyard of a vacant house about 11 p.m.