2nd man arrested in alleged sicario hit murder

EL PASO, Texas ( KTSM ) — El Paso Police have arrested and charged a second man with a 2022 East El Paso murder allegedly committed by a group of sicarios, or hit men, working for a cartel involved in human smuggling.

Gael Hernandez Ruiz, 19, is charged with murder in the death of 35-year-old Alonso Llamas Chavez on Dec. 28, 2022 outside the 11/11 Bar at 1441 Zaragoza.

According to the affidavit obtained by KTSM, the victim had been drinking with friends at the bar, and when they left as a group around 2 a.m., he was shot by someone with a rifle in the parking lot.

Hernandez Ruiz and three other men are suspected of driving a white PT Cruiser to the bar in the early morning of Dec. 28 to kill Llamas Chavez on the orders of a man from Juarez in charge of a criminal organization involved in a human smuggling operation. Hernandez Ruiz was allegedly driving the car with three other individuals inside when they shot Llamas Chavez. Documents do not directly identify the shooter.

The affidavit alleges Hernandez Ruiz drove the PT Cruiser to a nearby parking lot, where he abandoned it and was picked up by Brandon Alexis Garcia, 20, who was driving a white Nissan Armada. Garcia was arrested and charged with murder in connection with this case back in April.

EPPD investigators met with Hernandez Ruiz at the Luna County Detention Center, where the U.S. Border Patrol was holding him for allegedly smuggling six undocumented immigrants through the Sunland Park area.

While he denied being part of the murder, Hernandez Ruiz allegedly admitted he was involved in a prior attempt to kill Llamas Chavez outside the Sombrillas Bar on Zaragoza about a month before the deadly shooting outside the 11/11 bar. Hernandez Ruiz said they abandoned the original plan to kill Llamas Chavez after he never emerged from the bar.

EPPD investigators allegedly located other individuals who reportedly identified Hernandez Ruiz as one of the four sicarios in the PT Cruiser from surveillance footage in the area during the December murder.

U.S. Border Patrol investigators extracted data from Hernandez Ruiz’s cell phone. They learned he’d posted videos of him holding weapons resembling the rifles used during the murder dated Dec. 29, 2022, which is the date the murder occurred.

The investigation into the remaining “sicarios” involved in Llamas Chavez’s death is still ongoing.

Hernandez Ruiz was booked Thursday on a $300,000 bond. Garcia posted a $60,000 bond and was released on June 29.

Police have yet to release mugshots for Hernandez Ruiz or Garcia, citing their ongoing investigation.

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