FOLLOWUP: 3 charged with murdering Derek Juarez-Lopez in Westcrest Park

The three suspects arrested in the September stabbing death of 15-year-old Derek Juarez-Lopez are all now charged with first-degree murder: 18-year-old Jonatan Islas-Martinez, 17-year-old Elizabeth Cabrera-Aparicio, and 16-year-old Diego S. Carballo-Oliveros, all three of whom live in West Seattle. (The latter two are charged as adults, so we are publishing their names.) The charging papers say that Carballo-Oliveros already was facing charges of robbery and attempted robbery in an unrelated case, and was due in court the day after the murder that led to these charges.

The narrative in the charging documents is largely the same as what we reported yesterday from the documents in Islas-Martinez’s probable-cause hearing, with a few additions: Prosecutors describe Cabrera-Aparicio as Carballo-Oliveros’s girlfriend, but also had written that she was the victim’s girlfriend. Also, the documents quote an unidentified witness as saying he went to Westcrest Park with Carballo-Oliveros with the expectation they were going to buy and smoke marijuana, and they awaited “the dealer.” The victim showed up with Cabrera-Aparicio and showed a glass jar that was in his backpack, “just enough of the jar that would clearly show that it was filled with marijuana, which, according to (the witness), is a common practice when purchasing an ounce of marijuana, which was the case in this transaction.” (The witness) said that as soon as Carballo-Oliveros saw the marijuana, “he demanded everything” from the victim, who resisted – and then, the documents say, was stabbed by Carballo-Oliveros, who had removed a “medium-sized knife” and flipped it open. The victim tried to run but was pushed down from behind. Islas-Martinez then grabbed the backpack and ran, the witness said, while the victim remained on the ground and Carballo-Oliveros allegedly said, “That wasn’t supposed to happen, I don’t want to have to kill you.” He then ran, said the witness,who did the same thing, saying he didn’t realize the victim was hurt.

Next steps in the case: All three defendants are scheduled for arraignment November 2nd. Bail for each is now set at $1 million.

14 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: 3 charged with murdering Derek Juarez-Lopez in Westcrest Park"

  • Admiral Mom October 20, 2017 (4:19 pm)

    A terrible tragedy. My heart goes out to the victim’s parents, siblings, relatives, teachers and everybody that will miss this young man. May he rest in peace

  • Mark October 20, 2017 (5:05 pm)

    Presuming that they are found guilty, they deserve to spend a very long time behind bars

    • Spokant October 20, 2017 (9:24 pm)

      If by “very long time” I hope you mean for life, because other than life, how is justice served?

      if you take someone’s life, you forfeit yours. What else is acceptable?

  • Felicia October 20, 2017 (5:13 pm)

    OK bye.

  • Seattlite October 20, 2017 (5:32 pm)

     Great job SPD.  Totally unacceptable that these kind of criminals live and do their criminal activities in WS…very disturbing to say the least.

  • mariem October 20, 2017 (6:16 pm)

    so sad. 

  • Bonnie October 20, 2017 (6:17 pm)

    What a waste.  With one very, very poor decision 4 lives were ruined, not to mention their families lives changed forever.  So sad.

  • sc October 20, 2017 (6:41 pm)

    15, 16, 17 and 18.

    So young 

  • Susan October 20, 2017 (6:58 pm)

    Awesome job! God Bless all of the Officers of SPD. Living so close to where this happened is very scary. So glad they were caught. I deal with these kind of people everyday on my property and have lost a lot of personal property, thousands of $$ damage to the property as well as the loss of my sanity and great risk to my health from dirty needles and human waste but when someones life is taken, I feel ridiculous for whining about my “losses”. Nothing compares to that kind of loss. God Bless the family and friends of Derek and may he rest in peace in Heaven.

  • dsa October 20, 2017 (7:01 pm)

    Sad story for all

  • Question Mark October 21, 2017 (8:07 pm)

    This happened in the new world of marijuana legalization. If you think that youth under 21 aren’t paying attention to community norms, you’d be mistaken. Just in the past year (since October 2016) King County has chosen to license more than half the retail marijuana stores—seven—for it’s unincorporated municipality of over 250,000 residents in White Center and Top Hat, all less than a mile from where this crime took place.

    Where is the leadership for healthy communities, Dow Constantine? On reasonable marijuana policy it has been missing in action.

  • Question Mark October 22, 2017 (12:10 pm)

    WSB, society and community certainly don’t benefit from a cynical, insensitive and inattentive local government which abuses its power to impose these norms …

    • Question Mark October 22, 2017 (12:23 pm)

       … particularly when their application is so obviously uneven across the municipality …

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