ROGERS : Police: Mother of 5 fatally shot; suspect escapes
Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/231625/
ROGERS — Police spent Thursday searching for a man accused in the fatal shooting of his cousin’s wife the night before. Sergio Morales-Carrera, 23, has been charged with capital murder. Veronica Robles, 37, died of multiple gunshot wounds at her home at 2606 Graham Drive about 9 p. m., said Rogers police spokesman Lt. Mike Johnson. Morales-Carrera is a cousin of Robles’ husband, Jose Carrera, police said. A neighbor who asked not to be identified said Robles and Carrera had been trying to get Morales-Carrera to move out of their house.
The couple had been arguing recently with Morales-Carrera, the neighbor said. Robles and Carrera lived in the house about two years. Carrera was on his way to Memphis for work when the shooting occurred.
Four of Robles’ five children, ages 5, 11, 15 and 18, also lived there.
Police said Morales-Carrera fled the scene with a. 45-caliber handgun in a GMC pickup he stole from the house. The vehicle was found abandoned Thursday morning at Tesoro Beach restaurant, 701 S. Thompson St. in Springdale.
Police consider Morales-Carrera armed and dangerous. They said he has ties to Memphis and Wichita, Kan., and that he’s previously crossed the border to Mexico at Laredo, Texas.
Johnson said police across Arkansas and other states have Morales-Carrera’s description.
The neighbor on Graham Drive witnessed Morales-Carrera pull up to the home Wednesday night. She said Morales-Carrera argued loudly inside with Robles. The argument escalated, and Morales-Carrera came outside and got a gun from a pickup, the neighbor said.
He went back inside and she heard three shots, the neighbor said. Robles’ children ran outside screaming for help. Her 15-yearold daughter called police from a cell phone.
“The daughter collapsed in the front yard, and the children were screaming, ‘ He killed our mother ! Stop him !’” the neighbor said.
Morales-Carrera sped off in the pickup.
“He took off so fast his door wasn’t even all the way shut,” the neighbor said.
The neighbor’s husband called police, and a dispatcher told him to go inside and check on Robles. The man found her lying dead in a hallway with large gunshot wound to her head, the neighbor said.
The neighbor and her husband gathered the four children while police swarmed around the house.
The children were huddled in the neighbor’s driveway.
“I was trying to stretch my arms as long as I could around them, to protect them,” she said.
Robles has a fifth child who recently married, the neighbor said. The four children are staying with their sibling.
Carrera is a bricklayer. The family has been in the process of moving to Bentonville, and half their furniture is in one house and the rest is in Rogers.
The neighbor said Robles was a kind woman who loved her children. When the neighbor was recovering from hip surgery, Robles came to her house and checked on her every day.
Once, the neighbor helped Robles get ready for a special event.
“Her hair was long, and she wore it back,” she said. “I helped her with her makeup. She looked very pretty.”