Double murder in Ponce and Guayama: bail bondsman records confession on video before dying
A man confessed to two murders in Puerto Rico on video before being found dead. The victims are a lawyer and a former statehood leader.
Filmed confession and three crime scenes shock Puerto Rico
A video measuring six minutes and 29 seconds is at the centre of a criminal investigation involving two murders in the municipalities of Ponce, Santa Isabel and Guayama, according to elnuevodia.com. In the recording, bail bondsman William Noel Rivera Sánchez, 45 years old, outlined an economic dispute, pointed to two men and claimed to have killed them.
The video began circulating on social media shortly after the murder of lawyer Luis A. Quiñones González was confirmed on Avenida Las Américas in Ponce. Hours later, Rivera Sánchez was found dead in the living room of his residence in Santa Isabel.
The victims and sequence of events
Puerto Rico's Police superintendent, Joseph González Falcón, held a press conference from the headquarters in Hato Rey. "We are here to provide information about two murders we are investigating in the municipalities of Ponce and Guayama that are related to the same suspect," he stated. "These are regrettable events that have caused pain to three families," he added.
In addition to Quiñones González, police confirmed that the other victim is former statehood leader Félix Plaud.
According to González Falcón, Quiñones González was leaving the courthouse when another vehicle approached his. An individual exited the car and shot him using two firearms. The lawyer's wife, who was travelling in the vehicle ahead, witnessed the attack through the rear-view mirror and fired several shots as the attacker fled.
The alleged attacker was found dead in his home. Three weapons were recovered. The superintendent indicated that the impacts on Rivera Sánchez's vehicle could correspond to the shots fired by Quiñones González's wife in attempting to repel the attack on a heavily trafficked avenue in Ponce.
The economic background that Rivera Sánchez recounted
Rivera Sánchez recorded the video while driving a car. In the recording he described an investment in two medicinal cannabis dispensaries, claiming to have given all his savings to both victims to develop the businesses. Neither of the establishments ever opened, according to his account.
He alleged that the people to whom he entrusted the money failed to honour their commitments and that his attempts to recover it resulted in a prolonged dispute. He mentioned that there was a lawsuit and that he received part of the money back, but that payments recently ceased. The second project, which supposedly would have been located in Cupey, also never materialised.
"In the next few minutes, in the next few hours, many things are going to be said about me," Rivera Sánchez said in the video before ending the recording.
Open investigation; allegations unconfirmed
Police emphasised that Rivera Sánchez's allegations do not by themselves establish that the individuals he pointed to had committed fraud. His account forms part of the investigation that authorities opened following the events. The economic accusations take up a large part of the recording, but have not been independently corroborated.
The dissemination of the video on social media added a new dimension to the case and raised questions about the whereabouts of the former statehood leader before his death was confirmed. The case, with three crime scenes distributed across different municipalities in the south and the metropolitan area of the island, has generated widespread public attention in Puerto Rico.
Source: Google News PR — Crime