Edinburg police investigators believe a 31-year-old man accused of a stabbing death — the county’s first murder of 2020 — had previously threatened his victim.
A probable cause affidavit for the arrest of Ramiro Escobar reveals the man was friends with Ramirez’s common-law wife and had made previous threats to harm the man.
Escobar, a San Juan resident who is charged with murder, remains jailed on a $1 million bond.
The investigation began after police were called on New Year’s Day to the Lantana Apartments complex at 1200 N. 1st Ave. in reference to a stabbing.
The responding officer found Ramirez lying face down on his stomach on the floor near the apartment’s kitchen door.
Ramirez had been stabbed twice in his left torso and twice in his chest, according to the affidavit.
Cynthia Gutierrez, Ramirez’s common-law wife, told police that she asked Ramirez who stabbed him, but the only word he was able to say was “Chrysler,” the charging document stated.
Those last words, however, would help detectives track Escobar down.
When speaking to officers, Gutierrez told them that Escobar owned a Chrysler 300.
Detectives located Escobar at his apartment in San Juan, but say he was uncooperative and was detained for more questioning, according to the probable cause affidavit.
After being read his rights, Escobar requested his attorney.
Investigators also learned Escobar’s Chrysler 300 was seen driving into the apartment complex and leaving the complex around the time of the stabbing, the charging document stated.
Authorities found Escobar’s Chrysler 300 in his friend’s possession.
That person told police Escobar confessed to him that he went to Gutierrez’s apartment and got into a fight with a man and stabbed him, according to the probable cause affidavit.
