Police accuse three men in two area homicides
Arraignment - Portland and Gresham detectives say drugs were behind shooting deaths in May and July

Tuesday, July 18, 2006
STUART TOMLINSON

The Oregonian

GRESHAM -- Police and prosecutors Monday tied a homicide in Portland and a homicide in Gresham to three men they say were involved with drugs.

The men -- 29-year-old Joel Sanchez Jacobo, 24-year-old Gerardo Vasquez Villa Gomez and 20-year-old Jose Zamora Camacho -- were arraigned Monday on aggravated murder charges in the July 10 death of Alejandro Hernando Sanchez, 31, of Gresham. Gresham police arrested the men Friday.

Hernando's body was found in a triplex in the 1100 block of Northeast 162nd Avenue. He died of a gunshot wound to the head, police said.

Also Monday, Portland detectives accused the three men in court documents in the May 31 shooting death of Rodolfo Romero Lopez, 24.

In that incident, police responded to a report a little after 11 p.m. of shots fired at the Crofton Apartments at Southeast Stark Street and 157th Avenue, said Sgt. Brian Schmautz, a Portland police spokesman. Police said they found Romero sprawled outside an apartment. He died of a gunshot wound to the chest.

Drugs were behind the two killings, according to detectives from the Gresham Police Department, Portland Police Bureau and court documents released Monday.

According to a probable-cause affidavit, prosecutors and police say Sanchez Jacobo paid the other two men to shoot Hernando over an unpaid drug debt.

A witness told police that the three men went to Hernando's apartment. Sanchez Jacobo threatened the witness to keep his mouth shut and then left, according to court documents. One of the men who stayed behind then shot Hernando twice in the head, according to the documents.

"This is a new level of violence for Gresham," said Sgt. Jeff Hansen of the Gresham Police Department. "This is serious stuff."

Court documents said that in mid-May, a witness told police that Sanchez Jacobo threatened Romero and another man with death because they allegedly had stolen $4,000 worth of narcotics from him.

According to the probable-cause affidavit, Sanchez Jacobo agreed to pay Villa Gomez and Zamora Camacho an undisclosed sum if they killed Romero.

Two weeks later, according to the affidavit, two men walked up to Romero in the parking lot of the apartment complex, and one of them shot him in the chest.

All three men are being held without bail in the Justice Center jail.

Stuart Tomlinson: 503-294-5940; stuarttomlinson@news.oregonian.com