NewsWhore
05-17-2010, 02:50 PM
Ruben Soto Hayet, the 78-year old owner of the popular La Francesa coffee shop on Santo Domingo's Abraham Lincoln Avenue, was shot dead at 2:48pm on Friday. La Francesa has been known as a popular meeting point for long chats on politics, economy and gossip. The Cuban born businessman suffered four bullet wounds. Two men who rushed to his aid and saw the murderers, 35-year old watchman Jorge Valdez Santana who worked at the plaza where the shop is located, and 25-year old Maximo Geronimo Paredes, a messenger for an advertising agency located in the plaza were also shot to death. Parking assistant Agustin Romero, 62, and Soto's driver, 42-year-old Jose Luis Mejia Ramos suffered injuries in the attack and were taken to the Centro Medico de Medicina Avanzada at Abraham Lincoln Avenue.
Ruben Soto had just arrived at the plaza when he was attacked, according to General Juan Geronimo Brown of the Police. The Police say two individuals driving a Mitsubishi Nativa SUV plate G155978 had been following Soto and murdered him when he got out of his vehicle in the plaza's parking lot.
A green SUV was recovered and is believed to be the vehicle used by the murderers. It was abandoned on Calle Jose Andres Aybar near the corner with Calle Federico Geraldino, not far from the crime scene. The Police say the vehicle, which had been reported stolen by Chien Pin Kuo Suen on 7 January, was said to have originally been black.
News reports say that Soto Hayet was the stepfather of Madelin Bernard, the wife of murdered former colonel Jose Gonzalez Gonzalez, said to be a close aide of fugitive drug baron Jose Figueroa Agosto. She survived when the vehicle in which she and her husband had arrived at their Anacaona Avenue home on 24 December was fired upon.
She had been interrogated by the National District prosecutor on Wednesday. The prosecutor office has a month to present the case on Figueroa Agosto.
Chief of Police Rafael Guzman Fermin himself went to the scene of the crime. When he was asked whether the death was a warning to those who might serve as witnesses or could talk in the case of Jose David Figueroa Agosto, Guzman Fermin told reporters he did not want to speculate, and would wait for the prosecutors to prepare the case.
But on the day of the funeral, fellow Cuban Mario Rivadulla said that Soto had had only one wife, now his widow, Cuban Consuelo de Soto (Dona Concha). He denied that the victim was Madelin Bernard's stepfather. "That is not true. I don't know how they [the press] got this idea. The only truth is that years ago he had a relationship with the mother of that girl (Madelin Bernard), but he is not her adoptive father, nor did he raise her, nor was he the father-in-law of former Colonel Gonzalez, as has been published," he said. He said that Ruben was a simple and humble man, and that was probably why he never bothered to dispute the information linking him to Figueroa Agosto when it was published.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)
Ruben Soto had just arrived at the plaza when he was attacked, according to General Juan Geronimo Brown of the Police. The Police say two individuals driving a Mitsubishi Nativa SUV plate G155978 had been following Soto and murdered him when he got out of his vehicle in the plaza's parking lot.
A green SUV was recovered and is believed to be the vehicle used by the murderers. It was abandoned on Calle Jose Andres Aybar near the corner with Calle Federico Geraldino, not far from the crime scene. The Police say the vehicle, which had been reported stolen by Chien Pin Kuo Suen on 7 January, was said to have originally been black.
News reports say that Soto Hayet was the stepfather of Madelin Bernard, the wife of murdered former colonel Jose Gonzalez Gonzalez, said to be a close aide of fugitive drug baron Jose Figueroa Agosto. She survived when the vehicle in which she and her husband had arrived at their Anacaona Avenue home on 24 December was fired upon.
She had been interrogated by the National District prosecutor on Wednesday. The prosecutor office has a month to present the case on Figueroa Agosto.
Chief of Police Rafael Guzman Fermin himself went to the scene of the crime. When he was asked whether the death was a warning to those who might serve as witnesses or could talk in the case of Jose David Figueroa Agosto, Guzman Fermin told reporters he did not want to speculate, and would wait for the prosecutors to prepare the case.
But on the day of the funeral, fellow Cuban Mario Rivadulla said that Soto had had only one wife, now his widow, Cuban Consuelo de Soto (Dona Concha). He denied that the victim was Madelin Bernard's stepfather. "That is not true. I don't know how they [the press] got this idea. The only truth is that years ago he had a relationship with the mother of that girl (Madelin Bernard), but he is not her adoptive father, nor did he raise her, nor was he the father-in-law of former Colonel Gonzalez, as has been published," he said. He said that Ruben was a simple and humble man, and that was probably why he never bothered to dispute the information linking him to Figueroa Agosto when it was published.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#5)