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HOLLISTER — 19-year-old Juan Soto has been arrested for the May 1st homicide of Antonio Ortega and Emilio Barrera.
At around 6:30 AM on August 3rd, Salinas PD detectives conducted a traffic stop as Soto left his home on the 1000 block of Santa Ana Road and placed him under arrest. Immediately thereafter, a search warrant was served on the home.
In piecing together the chain of events, detectives determined that Soto had been the driver of the vehicle from which Orega and Barrera’s killer had arrived and left.
Soto has also been identified as the driver in another incident of attempted murder on the same day in the area of Mae and Towt Streets.
In the second incident, a 14-year-old boy was walking home when a suspicious individual confronted him and demanded to know which gang he affiliated with. The boy denied being involved with any gangs, at which point the suspect ordered him to hand over his phone and shoes.
When the boy refused, the suspect stabbed him in the abdomen and fled in the vehicle driven by Soto.
Soto has since been booked into the Monterey County Jail on “two counts of homicide and one count of attempted homicide.”
