Rossana Delgado: 9 drug traffickers plead guilty to murder and kidnapping of Georgia mom-of-two
GILMER COUNTY, GEORGIA: Nine defendants have pled guilty in the 2021 murder of a Barrow County woman who was "lured" with a false promise of a shopping trip. Rossana Delgado, 37, was murdered in April 2021 after she was abducted by members of a drug trafficking ring. The body of the mother-of-two was later found in Gilmer County. The authorities are still looking for other suspects related to the case of what has been described as an incident of racketeering.
According to police, Delgado was "lured" to the Plaza Fiesta shopping center northeast of Atlanta in the false hope of going shopping. She was kidnapped by a group of drug traffickers and taken to various locations over the next two days.
READ MORE
Two children, aged 1 and 4, found dead in double homicide as person of interest taken into custody
According to Delgado's husband, his wife informed him that she was dropping off her last passenger and heading back home, 11Alive.com reports. But when she didn't come home that night, he started to worry a lot. He tracked his wife's last known locations using his phone and discovered a bloody face mask at one of the places she had been and decided to call the police.
Rossana Delgado's body was found in a rural cabin
The investigators found a rural cabin that was rented through an online app using a stolen identity. Her body was discovered there, four days after she was reported missing, 120 miles away from where she was last seen. "At the cabin [the suspects] did torture Delgado prior to her death and eventually carried out the killing of Delgado and dismemberment and burning of Delgado's body," the Appalachian Judicial Circuit District Attorney's Office said in a press release last week.
Police are searching for 5 more suspects
Police said that they are still looking for five suspects but many of them fled to Mexico after the murder. The district attorney's office said that four of the suspects were apprehended in Mexico after a month after Delgado's murder. All of the were extradited to the United States.
What charges are the criminals facing?
A grand jury indicted 14 people as part of the case where several defendants pleaded guilty. Oscar Manuel Garcia pleaded guilty to malice murder, kidnapping, concealing the death of another, removal of body parts from the scene of death, aggravated battery, and violation of the racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations act. A judge sentenced Garcia to life in prison.
Juan Ayala-Rodriguez pleaded guilty to kidnapping concealing the death of another, aggravated battery, and violation of the racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations act and was sentenced to life in prison.
Juan Antonio Vega pleaded guilty to kidnapping, concealing the death of another, aggravated battery, and violation of the racketeer-influenced and corrupt organizations act. Vega was sentenced to serve 30 years behind bars. Megan Alyssa Colone pleaded guilty to violation of the racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations act and was sentenced to serve 18 years in prison. Eva Galicia Martinez pleaded guilty to violation of the racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations act and was sentenced to serve 13 years in prison.
Terri Amanda Garner, Patrick Harvard, Calvin Harvard, and Shawn Callaway all pleaded guilty to violation of the racketeer-influenced and corrupt organizations act and received prison sentences. The office said that they are searching for three more suspects. "It is my hope, even though this matter remains open, that the resolutions and sentences entered at this time will assist the family and loved ones of Rossana Delgado in beginning to obtain closure," District Attorney B Alison Sosebee said in a statement, People reports.