Thread: America's Most Wanted: Honduran IA violent, sexual predator

riday, April 11, 2008
Last updated 12:53 a.m. PT
Man spent a year plotting revenge, police say

By SCOTT GUTIERREZ
P-I REPORTER

He was twice their age, but Julio Guevara-Mejia couldn't stay away from teenagers -- from the impressionable boys he befriended, to the girls he tried to lure with clothing and jewelry.

Related content

· Teens often victims of domestic violence

He obsessed over a Northern California girl he had dated when she was 17 -- a girl who had dumped him when her parents found out. Despite a court order, and 800 miles between them, Guevara-Mejia, 35, couldn't let go. Even while he lived for a year in Seattle, he plotted a trap, police say.

On Nov. 10, the woman, now 20, was shot five times and left for dead in a motel room west of Sacramento. Lying around the room were roses, gifts and a suitcase.

Police would find clues pointing to two suspects in Seattle, including Guevara-Mejia, a Honduran immigrant and drifter. The second was a teenage boy whose mother had sublet a room to Guevara-Mejia in West Seattle. Police say the two traveled to Davis, Calif., where they shadowed the victim for three days and lured her to the motel to win her back.
Guevara-Mejia
Guevara-Mejia

"I think in his warped mind, he really had this vision of turning this into a romantic rendezvous," said Davis police Sgt. Scott Smith.

"He literally had roses in one hand and a .357 in the other."

Guevara-Mejia has since disappeared, despite police efforts in Davis and Seattle to catch him. The boy, now 16, was arrested days after the shooting at his mother's apartment and transferred to California authorities. A juvenile court hearing is set for May to determine whether he'll be tried as an adult.

On April 26, the true-crime series "America's Most Wanted," plans to re-enact the case on national television. Guevara-Mejia is charged in Yolo County Superior Court with attempted murder, kidnapping and torture, and a federal warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Police fear Guevara-Mejia may have fled the country. His trail has wound through connections in Burien, Palm Springs, Calif., and Houston.

The victim's family is offering a $10,000 reward for tips that lead to his arrest.

"Until he is captured, she always will have those thoughts in the back of her mind. 'Is he following me? Could he come and get me? Is he behind me?' " said Jessica Hijazi, the victim's mother, during a telephone interview from the Sacramento area.

"I'm going to jail for this"

A college freshman six months ago, Monica Bentley is now in a wheelchair. Her ankles shattered by gunshots and her right side paralyzed, she may never again stand or walk normally, Hijazi said.

Bentley was a high school senior when Guevara-Mejia first made advances. She was studying Spanish and Hispanic culture. Their brief romance lasted nine months until Bentley had a "wake-up call."

But Guevara-Mejia began stalking her, leaving cards and flowers on her lawn, parking at the end of her street. Once, he accosted her, but strangers intervened, Hijazi said.

He called late one night and Bentley's mother answered.

"He told me, 'I'm sick. I know it's wrong. I know I shouldn't be with her but I can't help myself," Hijazi said, recounting the conversation. "I told him to stay away. It really surprised me at how obsessed he was with her, though I never thought he would have gone through the lengths he did."

Hijazi and her family obtained a court protection order and sold their home and moved 30 miles away. For a year, he seemed to have disappeared.

The shooting happened around 10:30 a.m. on Nov. 10 at a Motel 6 in Davis, a college city of 64,000. Bentley was lured there by a person she thought was a young man going with her to a San Francisco museum. A new acquaintance, the young man had told her was staying in room 222 with his father, a construction worker.

Bentley knocked on the door, but got no answer. As she turned to leave, the door opened. Guevara-Mejia emerged.

As he grabbed her, Bentley screamed and clung to an outside railing. Two passers-by yelled to let her go, but he whipped out a .357-caliber firearm and fired twice as he yanked Bentley into the room, court documents say.

Scowling as he tossed her on the bed, he said, "I'm going to jail for this."

Then he shot her right foot, paused, and shot her left foot. As he fired three more times at her arm, chest and shoulder, she turned her head and closed her eyes.

Pied Piper

A year before the shooting, Guevara-Mejia found construction work in Seattle and moved to a distant relative's apartment in Burien. Later, he rented a room with a woman and her teenage son in West Seattle, Smith said.

He took the boy under his wing. Digital photos later retrieved from Guevara-Mejia's cell phone, which he left behind in his car, show the two standing side-by-side, bumping fists.

"He sort of worshipped this guy like the big brother, father figure he didn't have," said Smith, the detective.

Seattle police had no previous record of trouble with Guevara-Mejia. But detectives would later learn that he had prowled teen hangouts in White Center and Burien, buying juveniles beer and cigarettes.

"He became like the Pied Piper to these kids," Smith said.

He also approached young girls on the Eastside, primarily around Finn Hill Junior High and Redmond Junior High. He would offer rides and lavish gifts if they would spend time with him, Smith said.

Police found suggestive photos of at least one girl on Guevara-Mejia's cell phone -- possibly taken in a Seattle-area motel.

Acquaintances recalled him speaking incessantly about the California girl who had "broken his heart," Smith said.

He would employ his new companion to get her back.

Seattle connection

On Nov. 3, Bentley was buying windshield wipers when a young man flirted with her. He introduced himself as "Saga," was 19 and was planning to attend school in Sacramento, court documents say.

She hesitated to disclose personal information. He asked for her number and seemed nice, so they agreed to meet for coffee two days later.

They appeared to share much in common and he asked to join her and her friends for a weekend trip to a San Francisco art museum, court documents say.

As they chatted over coffee, Bentley swore she saw Guevara-Mejia slink by the window. She was unaware that he had been in the parking lot, monitoring them.

Guevara-Mejia had coached "Saga," which was not the boy's real name, on how to approach Bentley. Clues came from the suspect's cell phone, left behind in his Toyota Camry a few blocks from the motel.

Within days of the shooting, Seattle detectives were alerted to the investigation. Davis detectives joined them in obtaining a warrant and searching the teen's apartment in the 6900 block of Delridge Way Southwest.

The boy, who took his alias from a cartoon character, said Guevara-Mejia took him to Davis and then back to Seattle, where the teen called the victim on the morning of the shooting. Meanwhile, Guevara-Mejia drove another 12 hours back to the motel.

On the run

Police have tracked Guevara-Mejia's to Palm Springs, where he showed up at a relative's home last Thanksgiving appearing paranoid, haggard and wearing dirty clothes. Relatives gave him money for a bus ticket to Houston, Smith said.

Guevara-Mejia worked as tailor for the Honduran military, which may give him further resources to hide, Smith said.

"The problem is as irrational as he is, who knows what he's going to do," Smith said.

Bentley plans to study sociology and wants to help abused women. She and her family have been public about her story to keep the focus on finding the suspect, said Hijazi, her mother.

"You hope that justice will be served," she said.

"AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": For more information about the search for Julio Guevara-Mejia, visit America's Most Wanted. A re-enactment of the case is tentatively slated to air Sat., April 26 on Fox. amw.com/fugitives/case.cfm?id=52257.

P-I reporter Scott Gutierrez can be reached at 206-903-5396 or scottgutierrez@seattlepi.com.
Soundoff (29 comments)

link to story...and don't forget to watch AMW on April 26th. Spread the wordl.

"Love is in the Air" must be spring time