The second suspect in last month’s bludgeoning murder of a Trenton man has been apprehended, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.
Juan Antonio Marques-Villeda was arrested in Rensselaer County, New York, on Tuesday in connection with the death of Jeronimo Villatoro, who was found beaten and stabbed on West Post Road Oct. 19, according to the DA’s office.
Marques-Villeda will be arraigned on murder and related charges after he is extradited to Pennsylvania, said the DA’s office, which didn’t say when he would be returned.
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| Juan Antonio Marques-Villeda |
The U.S. Marshals Service apprehended Marques-Villeda after information led authorities to believe he was working as a roofer in upstate New York, Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler said. Marques-Villeda worked as a roofer when he lived in Trenton.
The marshals tracked him to a development under construction and arrested him, Heckler said.
“We were very much concerned he’d head back to where he came and, because of identification, he would have been almost impossible to find,” Heckler added.
No further details of the arrest were released Wednesday evening.
Bucks County detectives last month charged Eric Sarceno, 24, also of Trenton, with participating in the murder. He also faces charges of possessing an instrument of crime, hindering apprehension and tampering with evidence. He is incarcerated in Bucks County prison in lieu of $1 million cash bail.
Sarceno’s 19-year-old brother, Magnor, also of Trenton, is being held on a material witness warrant, meaning he was an eyewitness to the events before, during and after the murder, according to authorities. The teen isn’t expected to be charged in the murder, but he’s being detained because he’s an undocumented immigrant who is a high flight risk.
All four men are in the United States illegally, authorities said. The brothers and Marques-Villeda are from Guatemala, and authorities haven’t said where Villatoro lived before coming to the U.S. The men know each other and work for the same unidentified landscaping business in Trenton, authorities said. Marques-Villeda is believed to have been dating the brothers’ mother.
U.S. Immigration, Customs and Enforcement has been alerted about the suspects and eyewitness.
The brothers, Marques-Villeda and Villatoro were believed to have been drinking together in an illegal bar in Trenton Oct. 18 into Oct. 19. An argument between Marques-Villeda and Villatoro turned physical, police said. Authorities believe Marques-Villeda planned to beat the victim, but the fight turned fatal.
Villatoro was found around 8:30 a.m. on West Post Road near Ohio Avenue in Falls, at the border of Morrisville. He was severely beaten and stabbed multiple times in the chest and back with a screwdriver, which police said they found near the scene. An autopsy confirmed the man died of blunt force trauma.
Authorities believe that Marques-Villeda picked the area for the beating turned murder because he was familiar with it and knew it was isolated. The men are believed to have driven to Bucks County in a white van registered to one of the Sarceno brothers. The van was found about 100 yards from Villatoro’s body.
Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@calkins.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia
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