When sheriff’s deputies found 39-year-old Alamo resident Julian Ramirez’s lifeless body, he had multiple gunshot wounds and several spent casings around his body.
He was found at approximately 1:50 a.m. on a ranch in the 400 block of East Military Highway 281 in San Juan on Sunday. Deputies discovered the body after responding to a call for a man down, which was later reclassified to a homicide.
On Tuesday evening, those investigators, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force and Border Patrol found and arrested 27-year-old Palmview resident Jose Luis Guzman and charged him with murder over Ramirez’s death.
“Through the course of the investigation, Investigators met with several witnesses who stated they heard ‘shots being fired’ on the property and shortly after observed a light colored passenger car immediately leave the area after the shots were fired,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
One of those witnesses told investigators Guzman was seen driving that light-colored vehicle as it entered the ranch and then shortly after heard shots being fired and a vehicle driving away, according to the release.
The investigation revealed that the same vehicle had been loaned to Ramirez the day before and investigators say they obtained calls showing that Ramirez and Guzman had been in contact shortly before the shooting, according to the release.
The release, however, does not identify the suspected motive for the alleged murder.
Guzman made a first appearance Wednesday afternoon in the courtroom at the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center and received a $750,000 bond.
He remains jailed, records show.
