Staff report
SALISBURY — The man charged in the June 9 murder of Guillermo Montes-Gonzalez was in a Texas jail Friday night awaiting extradition back to North Carolina, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office said.
Jose Daniel Torres Castro, 23, was arrested by police in Kerens, Texas during a traffic stop earlier this week.
Kerens is about 70 miles southeast of Dallas.
When arrested, authorities said, Castro gave a fake name of Jorge Salgado Ortiz.
Deputies from the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office responded about 1 a.m. on June 9 to a reported shooting on Barley Run in western Rowan County. They found Montes-Gonzalez lying in a cul-de-sac with multiple gunshot wounds.
The 29-year-old had a wife and three children ages 3, 5 and 11. He was a cook at DJ’s Restaurant on West Innes Street.
On June 11, the Sheriff’s Office said it had taken out a warrant charging Castro with the murder. Authorities also said they had arrested Castro’s mother, 38-year-old Maria Castro, and charged her with accessory to first-degree murder after the fact.
Investigators said Maria Castro helped her son try to hide a blue van that belonged to Montes-Gonzalez and gave investigators false information. The investigators found the van parked in the Castros’ driveway at 2110 Harrison Road.
Montes-Gonzalez lived on South Oakhurst lane, which runs parallel to Harrison Road in a mobile home park off Harrison between Jake Alexander Boulevard and Sherrills Ford Road. The men’s homes are 10 minutes apart on foot, two minutes by car.
Magali Solano Garcia, the wife of Montes-Gonzalez told the Post earlier this week that she did not know Jose Castro well but had been friends with Maria Castro for several years. Garcia expressed surprise the Castros were suspects and said she didn’t understand “why they would kill him because he’s a good father and good husband, he doesn’t have any enemies at all.” Garcia said her husband had only spoken to Jose Castro a couple of times in the past couple of months, and she knew of no bad blood between them.
Jose Castro was being held without bond Friday in the Navarro County, Texas jail. Maria Castro remained in the Rowan County jail under $125,000 bond.
Rowan authorities said the SBI, Immigration Customs Enforcement, N.C. State Highway Patrol and Davie County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the investigation and arrest.