7/27/2010
DAVID CLOUSTON
The prime suspect in a Sunday evening homicide in Salina was arrested without incident Monday evening during a traffic stop in Dodge City, Salina police said.
Jose M. Garay, 28, of Salina, was taken into custody between 6 and 7 p.m. along with the other occupant of the vehicle, David Moreno, 28, formerly of Salina, but who’s been living recently in Dodge City with a third person, Abigail Soto, 20. She was arrested later at the apartment they shared, Deputy Police Chief Carson Mansfield said.
Mansfield said Garay was brought to the Saline County Jail. His bond has been set at $750,000 for one count of first degree murder for the shooting death of Derek Dean Rico, 17, in Sunset Park. Rico was killed at 7:40 p.m. Sunday.
Moreno and Soto each face a single count of aiding a felon, Mansfield said. It was not known Tuesday morning if they were in jail in Dodge City. There was no record of them being booked into the Saline County Jail. Dodge City police officials were unavailable for comment.
“A lot of police work and a lot of great cooperation with the Dodge City Police Department” is what resulted in Garay’s arrest, Mansfield said Tuesday.
Investigators were working with “very thin leads” that built up until they had reason to believe Garay had fled to Dodge City, Mansfield said.
No further arrests are expected, he said.
Read more about this story throughout the day at salina.com and in Wednesday’s Journal.

For more on developments in this story, stay with salina.com, and read Wednesday’s Salina Journal.

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