The Last Trick

Authorities have arrested three Tijuana teenagers for allegedly killing a man who refused to pay a prostitute for services, the Baja California attorney general said in a statement issued on Tuesday, October 6.

Sulivan Ibarra Villanueva, 18, his sister, Estefanía Ibarra Villanueva, 19, and a friend, Sarahí Vanessa Zamora Loera, also 18, are being held at the state prison in Tijuana. Each teen faces up to 50 years behind bars if convicted in the September 24 killing of Rafael Domínguez Flores, 55.

According to the attorney general’s statement, Domínguez met Estefanía Ibarra in late May at a downtown Tijuana restaurant and offered the young woman 800 pesos (about $60) to go to a hotel on Boulevard Insurgentes for sex. Afterward, the two went to an automatic teller machine where Domínguez said he would withdraw the money, but in the meantime asked the young woman to go to a nearby store to buy some sodas.

While Ibarra was inside the store, Domínguez took off. Two days later, the young woman was able to track down her customer where he was working at a construction site. When she asked for her money, Domínguez told her he would pay her the next time he saw her.

On September 24, Domínguez was allegedly lured to an apartment where the two accused women lived — and where Sulivan Ibarra was lying in wait, according to the attorney general’s statement. As soon as he entered the apartment, Domínguez was attacked from behind and strangled to death with an electric cable. His body was dumped on the side of a dirt road in a remote area of the city.

The attorney general said Estefanía Ibarra took all the money Domínguez had in his possession at the time of his death. Her brother allegedly sold the victim’s Ford F-150 pickup and used the money to pay medical expenses for his wife’s childbirth.