Report: Novato High Murder Suspect Had Been Arrested In Rape Case
NOVATO (CBS SF) – A 17-year-old Novato High School student who has been arrested for murdering a classmate had been taken into custody and released during the investigation of a rape case just days before the homicide, according to a report published Friday.
Citing unnamed sources, the Marin Independent Journal reported that 17-year-old Juan Carlos Martinez Henriquez had been booked into Marin County Juvenile Hall on suspicion of rape and sodomy of a 15-year-old Novato High School student on May 18.
He was released two days later without charges pending further investigation.
District Attorney Ed Berberian told the paper that he could not comment on the rape investigation because it is a juvenile matter.
Sources have told the paper that the sexual assault and the murder do not appear related.
Martinez and 16-year-old Edwin Guevara are charged as adults in the murder of fellow student Edwin Ramirez and the wounding of another student.
Martinez and Guevara are being held on murder and attempted murder with special circumstances charges.
Neither will face the death penalty because they are minors, but they could be sentenced to life without parole.
The third suspect in the attack, Guevara's 19-year-old brother Javier remains at large.
Ramirez died after he was shot in the head and stabbed with a machete on a hiking trail bordering a country club. Another teenager was also shot stabbed, but survived.
The two teen suspects were arrested during a tactical raid just blocks away from the school.
A fourth suspect, 20-year-old Elmer Machado-Rivera was also arrested being held without bail on an accessory to murder charge.
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