With three key witnesses missing, the case against an illegal immigrant charged in Lynchburg’s first homicide of the year wrapped up Monday morning with a last-minute plea agreement.
Adolfo Valentin-Morales, 29, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and agreed to a 10-year prison sentence.
Aberzai Lopez-Arellano was found dead, face down in a pool of blood on the 800 block of Pierce Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Mike Pflieger said.
Pflieger told the court Monday that Lopez-Arellano, known better as “Cowboy” or “El Mariachi,” and Valentin-Morales had been in a fight a week or two before New Year’s Day. Most of their friends, though, believed the two had resolved their differences when Lopez-Arellano came to Valentin-Morales’ home on Pierce Street for a party that night.
But around 3 a.m., Pflieger said, Lopez-Arellano, Valentin-Morales and two other men got into a fight. When the fight broke up, one of the men was cut on the back. Valentin-Morales told police he believed Lopez-Arellano cut his friend with a knife, the prosecutor said.
Lopez-Arellano left after the fight and after Valentin-Morales went into the kitchen to get a knife of his own, the prosecutor said. Valentin-Morales put the knife away for a short time, but then left the home and chased Lopez-Arellano down the street.
Pflieger said Valentin-Morales stabbed the man in the heart with an 8-inch knife.
“He stated he did so for revenge,” Pflieger said.
Two men, identified only as Victor and Miguel, who also fought with Lopez-Arellano that night, could not be found, the prosecutor said. Another key witness is also missing, he added.
He said prosecutors had offered plea agreements earlier in the case that had been refused.
Aside from the missing witnesses, Pflieger said the judge also would have likely told the jury that under the law, heat-of-passion can lessen the punishment in a slaying.
“Had the jury believed that was the case, they probably would have found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter anyway,” he said.
Defense attorney Leigh Drewry said he was ready to take the case to trial, but believed the manslaughter plea was a fair compromise.
“Any time you put your life in the hands of 12 people, anything can happen,” Drewry said.
Pflieger said he has had meetings with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who have told him Valentin-Morales will likely be deported after he serves his sentence. Lopez-Arellano and others involved in the case are also believed to be illegal immigrants.
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