Thread: Dragging arrest stuns suspect's brother

Dragging arrest stuns suspect's brother


'I don't know what to think,' he says of gruesome case


Victor Rubi-Nava, foreground, 25, of Castle Rock, talks near his home on Thursday about his older brother, Jose Luis Rubi-Nava. He has not told his mother or Jose Luis' wife, both of whom live in Mexico, about his brother's arrest in the dragging death of a woman Monday near Castle Rock
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By Ivan Moreno And Bianca Prieto, Rocky Mountain News
September 22, 2006
CASTLE ROCK - A somber-looking man stared at a picture of his smiling brother Thursday and was forced to ponder the unimaginable: that the man in the photo could be capable of one of the most horrendous killings in this city's history.
"I feel like my life is going to change," said Victor Rubi-Nava, 25.

His brother, Jose Luis Rubi-Nava, was arrested Wednesday for investigation of first-degree murder. The 36-year-old man is suspected of tying a rope around a woman's neck and dragging her behind his car for more than a mile early Monday on a rural road in the Surrey Ridge subdivision.

"Everything is so complicated, I don't know what to think," Victor Rubi-Nava said during an interview in Spanish.

He said he hasn't been able to talk to his brother since his arrest.

A friend of Jose Luis Rubi-Nava, who grew up with him Toluca, Mexico - a state near Mexico City - said he can't believe that the man he knows could have killed someone.

"I don't get tired of saying that he was a calm person," said Jorge Ayala, 32. "The crime he is accused of is horrendous. And it seems absurd that he could've done it."

The woman Rubi-Nava is alleged to have killed, Luz Maria Franco Fierro, was reportedly his girlfriend. They shared an apartment in Glendale with a close family friend of Fierro and another male roommate.

Ayala and Rubi-Nava's brother say they never met Fierro, 49, and that Jose Luis Rubi-Nava left the Castle Rock apartment he shared with his brother about four months ago.

Rubi-Nava had worked at a Burger King and was employed at a landscaping company in Arapahoe County, his brother said.

"The last time I talked to him, I asked him what he thought about his wife in Mexico," Ayala said. "And he told me that it was very difficult to be alone. He said, 'What I want the most is to bring my wife and my sons to live here with me.' "

Rubi-Nava has three sons - whose ages range from 3 to 12 - his brother said. Rubi-Nava's family in Mexico still don't know of his arrest.

Ayala and Rubi-Nava's brother said they never saw him drunk or in a fistfight and that he did not have an aggressive personality.

"I want people to know that he was not a drug addict or diabolical or a problematic person," Ayala said. "He was a sensible person. He is a sensible person."

But Cesar Gustavo Garcia Flores, 20, Fierro's family friend who lived with her and Rubi-Nava since April, said Rubi-Nava was a jealous man who on one occasion hit Fierro after one of their arguments.

Once, Fierro showed a neighbor, Zulma Pulgarin, a black eye she said Rubi-Nava had given her. He had hit her because she had kicked him in the groin, Pulgarin said.

"She was the one who'd always hit him," she said.

Rubi-Nava and Fierro met at a dance hall, and within a week, she asked him to move in, Pulgarin said.

"She was petite and heavy-set, but she was very pretty," Pulgarin said. "She had pretty green eyes and light skin; she didn't look her age."

Fierro, who came from the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, has three daughters and a son who still live in their native country, Flores said.

He said that Fierro's family has been notified of her death and are holding a Rosary service for her. Her body will be returned to Mexico soon, Flores said.

Rubi-Nava's brother said that the last time he talked to his brother, they were making plans to play soccer. Now he is waiting, hoping police have arrested the wrong man, before he calls relatives to tell them what has happened.

"I hope that everything turns out well already

Jose Luis' wife

woman Rubi-Nava is alleged to have killed, Luz Maria Franco Fierro, was reportedly his girlfriend.

These illegals are only good people with 'family values' here to earn a living.

Are people really that blind concerning people they are supposidly the closest to? Or just afraid to be honest about it?

I swear there are family members of murders and rapists of the most bizzare crimes that always are in total disbelief that they could do things like this. I can take one look in their eyes and see there's something seriously wrong. Love may be blind.....but deaf and plain stupid too? Add alcohol to the mix anything is possible.

Who's paying for all these illegal immigrants bodies to be sent back "home"? Just curious. I just keep reading where the body of the victim or criminal is being sent back to Mexico......just curious on who's dime.