Mecklenburg sheriff says ICE document mix up to blame for suspects’ release in murder case

The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office released and rearrested two suspects investigators linked to a Charlotte murder after a document mix up with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and a Mecklenburg magistrate.

Jose Rivera-Martinez, 38, and Reyna Ulloa-Martinez, 44, were in ICE custody in Georgia for unspecified reasons before officials transported them Friday to Charlotte, where they were served with warrants for being accessories in a first-degree murder, according to a news release from Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office.

The two are charged with helping 42-year-old Jose Francisco Ulloa-Martinez temporarily escape arrest and get “fictitious identification documents” after police say he killed Kevin Merlos-Saravia in east Charlotte on May 26.

The ICE officers did not give sheriff’s deputies writs, according to MCSO public information officer Bradley Smith. Writs are documents that direct deputies who are receiving detainees to keep them in custody and send them back after the charges are resolved.

So, with no writs, Mecklenburg Magistrate James Parker, who was working MCSO’s arrest processing center Friday morning, gave the two suspects an unsecured bond of $50,000. If they promised to show up for their court dates Monday afternoon, they didn’t have to pay.

Hours later, deputies realized something went wrong. Writs existed, but they weren’t initially provided to the deputies and the magistrate on duty, according to Smith. So the sheriff’s office and other officials set out to locate the Martinezes, but they were unsuccessful — until Monday when the two showed up at a scheduled court date.

Deputies took the two back in to custody when they appeared in court for their first appearance, as Parker, the magistrate, instructed them to do. They will stay in jail until their charges are resolved, according to the news release. Then, they will go back into ICE custody in Georgia.

“It was a stressful weekend, not knowing where the Martinezes were,” Sheriff Garry McFadden said in a statement, “but thankfully they appeared for court this afternoon.”

East Charlotte house murder

The accessory to murder charges are linked to the May 26 murder of Merlos-Saravia , police say.

According to police records, Jose Francisco Ulloa-Martinez’ wife called her daughter at 5 a.m. and told her “Jose had killed (Kevin).”

The two had been drinking at their home on Winged Elm Court since 5:30 p.m. the night before, she told police. Her husband had a gun, she told police, and he was “known to shoot” when drinking.

When she woke up to gunshots at 3 a.m., she saw “(Kevin) lying on his back by the stairs and Jose’s vehicle no longer in the parking lot,” according to the arrest affidavit.

Texas police arrested Jose Francisco Ulloa-Martinez in Houston weeks later, on June 7, and he was extradited to Charlotte June 24.

With Rivera-Martinez and Reyna Ulloa-Martinez also back in custody in Charlotte, McFadden said he is investigating how they came into his office without writs.

“We are committed to ensuring better communication with transport officers so that individuals with court-ordered detention holds are not erroneously released in the future,” he said.