FBI: Getaway car used by murder suspect to escape jail found in Texas
The FBI on Tuesday located a red Mustang used by Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo in his escape from a Virginia jail in April.
Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo and his older brother, Arturo Marin-Sotelo, are charged with murdering Wake County Deputy Ned Byrd in August, and the younger man escaped Piedmont Regional Jail on April 30. He was captured in Mexico May 4, after a four-day search.
The FBI said the car was found May 9 in Eagle Pass, Texas. It was spotted by an alert officer with the Eagle Pass Police Department.
On May 2, the FBI charged Alder Alfonso's sister, Adriana Marin Sotelo, with assisting her brother in his escape. In the warrant for her arrest, authorities outlined the phone conversations that set up a getaway car for Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo.
In a bond hearing Friday for Adriana Marin Sotelo, FBI agents laid out more details of the alleged plot.
One said that in interviews with family members after the jailbreak, another member of the family pointed the finger at Adriana. Sister Griselle Marin Sotelo told agents that last fall, when she visited Alder, he wrote on a piece of paper instructing her to get a car and leave it at the jail for him. She said no, and he told her to have Adriana visit him.
The agent said both sisters visited their brother at Piedmont Regional Jail in April. When Alder again began making the written request, Griselle told agents, she left.
The agents testified about the timing of the siblings' text messages. Adriana sent an urgent message to Alder's defense attorney at 11:59 a.m. on April 30. That would have been about 10 hours after her brother's escape from the jail outside Farmville, Virginia.
Agents said Griselle told them she learned of Alder's escape around the same time as the text, in a phone call from Adriana. Investigators said Griselle told them she wanted to call police, but her sister advised against that.
Adriana Marin Sotelo is being held without bond.
In court on Friday, the judge pointed out that she is not a U.S. citizen and has been deported before.
"We don't know how many times she's been able to cross the border," he said.
Agents referred to two others in connection with the escape plot. They identified them in court only by their first names. Giovanni is an inmate at Piedmont Regional Jail; Ashley is not. Neither person is charged in connection with the escape.
Sister's arrest offers insight to escape from Va. jail
In the warrant for her arrest, FBI agents wrote that surveillance video from Piedmont Regional Jail showed Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo climbing over the fence at 1:40 a.m. on April 30. Four hours later, the document says, "Marin is again captured on video surveillance, this time leaving the jail parking lot in a red Mustang."
According to the warrants and phone surveillance from the jail, Adriana met the sibling of another Piedmont Regional Jail inmate at Palacious Automotive in High Point to hand off a Mustang she had purchased.
That sibling later made a video call to the jail to show she was leaving the red Mustang in a parking lot nearby.
