Killed for Dollars

As 18-year-old José de Jesús Lamas Herrera walked along Virgo Street on June 28 in Tijuana’s Colonia Reacomodo Sánchez Taboada, someone walked up to him, pulled out a pistol, and shot him dead. Authorities now say they know who did it and why – for $1000.

During the weekend of September 26, acting on an arrest warrant, police took Mario Ezequiel Pérez Casillas and Ignacio Gerardo Casillas Ramírez into custody on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, the state attorney general announced in a press release.

Pérez Casillas and Casillas Ramírez were allegedly paid $1000 for the killing by an unknown third party who remains at large, the attorney general said.

The pair allegedly went out in search of Lamas Herrera after receiving the hit money, and, once they found him, Casillas Ramírez shot the 18-year-old dead with a single gunshot to his head, said the attorney general. Once the two men were satisfied the wounded man was not moving, they split the $1000 between them and ran away, according to the press release.

Pérez Casillas and Casillas Ramírez were imprisoned at the state penitentiary in Tijuana awaiting trial on the murder and conspiracy charges. The attorney general did not name a suspect in or a motive for the hired killing.