Arrest Made in Brutal Puerto Rico Murder

An arrest was made early this morning in Thursday’s brutal murder of Jorge Steven López*, reported here yesterday. The following is an auto-translation (with obvious readability corrections by me) of PrimeraHora.com’s article about the arrest.

An agent at Pereira Headquarters confirmed that it arrested a subject at a residence in the area of Los Beatriz Huertas neighborhood and seized two vehicles for research.

The information is provided by sources close to the murdered teenager. The figure was learned yesterday after extensive questioning friends of the victim in Caguas. Apparently this is a man who offered money for sex with López Mercado.

Thank God. My only worry is that the suspect may use a Gay Panic defense when this gets to trial.

Jorge Steven López Mercado
1990 - 2009

Well, there is a second worry. In a separate article (translation), human rights activist Pedro Julio Serrano spoke about the arrest.

Even if you blanket the presumption of innocence, it is encouraging that a suspect has been arrested for committing such heinous crime. We recognize, first of all, the work of the police who investigated this horrific killing quickly. We hope the investigation proves ultimately whether this murder was committed by sexual
orientation bias of Jorge Steven and if so, is prosecuted as a hate crime, with the full weight of law,” Serrano said in written communication.

In addition, Serrano asked not to divert attention to the circumstances in which this murder occurred and not prosecute the victim but the criminal who committed such a horrible crime.

“…do not divert attention from what is really important: a 19-year-old lost his life to be cruelly murdered by someone who had no compassion, even the slightest sensitivity to human dignity. Here we have to investigate, prosecute and give him his due process the criminal law. We cannot allow the prosecution in any way of a victim who no longer lives and can not defend himself,” declared the leader.

The arrested suspect has not been identified because he has not yet been formally charged.

* Steven’s full name is Jorge Steven López Mercado. This gringo had to look up the deal with many people dropping Mercado, and dropping it is correct usage.