Officer Tells Court Man Confessed To Shooting

By Bill Brubaker (Contact)

Saturday, March 8, 2008

A 20-year-old Leesburg painter confessed in a jailhouse interview to fatally shooting a neighbor after being jealous of the man’s relationship with a woman they both dated, a Loudoun County sheriff’s deputy testified Thursday.

Narciso Landero-Pons “indicated that he did shoot” Jose Eduardo Santos-Machado, 27, with one bullet to the head on the evening of Jan. 16, Sgt. Jay R. Conner said in Loudoun General District Court. He testified during a preliminary hearing to determine whether there was enough evidence to send the first-degree murder and felony gun charges against Landero-Pons to a grand jury.

Judge Julia T. Cannon ruled there was ample evidence, rejecting public defender Bonnie Hoffman’s request that the homicide charge be reduced to second-degree murder. Hoffman argued that the evidence did not prove the shooting had been premeditated, suggesting that the gun was “meant to scare,” not kill, Santos-Machado.

The shooting was prompted by a relationship both men had with Oneyda Monjaras Villacorta, 29, according to authorities and court testimony. Villacorta shared an apartment with Landero-Pons and her brother’s family on Fort Evans Road NE in Leesburg.

Landero-Pons came to the United States illegally from Mexico three years ago, according to court records. Santos-Machado lived a few blocks from Landero-Pons in a townhouse he had bought with a brother in 2005.

Speaking in Spanish, Villacorta testified that although she had a relationship with both men, she loved only Santos-Machado, a fellow immigrant from El Salvador who had a work visa and held jobs at the Wal-Mart and IHOP in Leesburg. They grew up in the same town, she said.

The four-hour hearing offered new details about the homicide, a crime that is rare in Loudoun. Villacorta testified, for example, that Landero-Pons uttered the Spanish word for “widow” when he returned to the apartment on the night of the shooting, dressed in black.

She told Loudoun Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Sean P. Morgan that she “didn’t pay much attention because I was on the phone.”

But in the months before the shooting, she said, Landero-Pons repeatedly told her he did not approve of her relationship with Santos-Machado.

“I said, ‘Well, you should look for another room,’ ” said Villacorta, whose testimony was translated by court-appointed interpreters. She testified that Landero-Pons once told her that Santos-Machado was “looking to get killed.”

In the jailhouse interview, Landero-Pons “did indicate he was jealous” of her relationship with Santos-Machado, said Conner, the deputy.

Landero-Pons, wearing leg irons and a striped orange-and-white uniform, listened quietly with his head bowed as Villacorta, four deputies and Leesburg Police Department officers testified about the events of Jan. 16.

Villacorta said Landero-Pons returned home from work about 7 p.m., took a shower, then left on his bicycle.

Narciso Landero-Pons

Before leaving, he went to a closet in the living room and retrieved a gun, Landero-Pons told authorities in the tape-recorded interview at Loudoun County Adult Detention Center, Conner said.

Landero-Pons told investigators that he had bought the gun four months earlier from a man in Leesburg for $400, said Conner, who speaks Spanish and served as an interpreter during the interview.

Landero-Pons said he rode his bike to the area of Woodberry Road and North Street, less than two miles from the apartment, Conner testified. Landero-Pons said he left the bike near a tree and walked back to the apartment.

About 8 p.m., Santos-Machado left Wal-Mart in his blue Honda Civic to take a dinner break at Villacorta’s apartment.

“I had the dinner ready for him,” Villacorta testified.

Landero-Pons told investigators that when he returned to the apartment, he asked Santos-Machado for a ride to a place in Leesburg where he was looking to “rent a room,” Conner said.

Jose Eduardo Santos-Machado

Landero-Pons said he “pulled the gun out to scare Jose” at one point during the ride, the deputy said.

The two men drove to the area where Landero-Pons had kept his bike, Conner said.

Shortly after 9 p.m., neighbors on Woodberry Road called police to report a loud noise. When police arrived, they found Santos-Machado slumped over dead in the driver’s seat of his car, with the engine still running. A weapon was found nearby.

Villacorta testified that she watched a movie with Landero-Pons after he returned to the apartment about 9:15 p.m. He did not tell her about the shooting, she said. But in the interview room at the jail, Landero-Pons said he had told Villacorta about the shooting when he returned home that evening, Conner said.

Landero-Pons was arrested the morning of Jan. 18.

Villacorta testified that she and a family member have received three letters from Landero-Pons since his arrest.

In the first one, she said, Landero-Pons wrote that he “did it for me” because “I love you” and that “I should forgive him for what he had done.” She said she read parts of the letter hurriedly before tearing it up and throwing it in the trash.

Villacorta said she gave the two other letters to investigators. In one, which was read in court Thursday, Landero-Pons allegedly wrote, “If the police ask you anything about me, don’t tell them anything. They are looking for information to see what they can do to me.”

There were a couple of odd moments during Villacorta’s testimony.

When Morgan asked her whether she could see Landero-Pons in the courtroom, she said, “No,” although he was sitting directly in front of her, about 15 feet away.

About 20 minutes later, Morgan asked again whether she could identify Landero-Pons. Villacorta stood up, looked around and said, “I don’t see him.”

Morgan then asked the judge whether she would allow Villacorta to leave the witness stand to look for the defendant.

Then, pointing to Landero-Pons, Villacorta said, “Oh. This one. Right here.”

She said she hadn’t noticed him before because his head had been bowed.

Tagged: crime, Leesburg

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