Trump admin. secures extradition of Mexican illegal charged w/ Wake deputy's murder
Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo has been fighting extradition since escaping from a Virginia jail and fleeing to Mexico in May 2023
An illegal alien who fled to his home country of Mexico after escaping jail has been taken into US custody after a 21-month extradition battle to face a first degree murder charge in the 2022 shooting of Wake County Sheriff's Deputy Ned Byrd.
Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo was among 29 defendants handed over by the Mexican government Thursday including alleged “leaders and managers of drug cartels,” each of whom face charges in with a statutory maximum of life imprisonment, or death.
Many of these defendants were “subject to longstanding U.S. extradition requests,” including Marin-Sotelo, who had been in Mexican custody for over 21 months; the DOJ press release credits the collective turnover as a response to the new administration, including President Trump's executive order designating cartels as terrorist organizations.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman and Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe, both Democrats, gave statements in a press release by the Wake County Sheriff's Office appreciative of the multi-agency and multi-jurisdiction collaboration involved in Marin-Sotelo's ongoing prosecution.
“The return of Mr. Marin-Sotelo to the United States now allows us to move forward with this case and set a trial date,” said Freeman.
In addition to the murder charge against Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo, three of his siblings have been charged in relation to the deputy's death as well, each of whom are also reported to have entered our country illegally: Arturo Marin-Sotelo (first degree murder,) Adriana Marin-Sotelo (conspiracy to assist or instigate an escape,) and Rolando Marin-Sotelo (accessory after the fact.)
Ambush
At around 11 pm on the night of August 11, 2022, Deputy Byrd was patrolling in a rural area of southeast Wake County when he stopped to investigate a parked red truck near the intersection of Auburn Knightdale Rd and Battle Bridge Rd. Byrd does not appear to have been expecting trouble, as he left his K-9 partner in his vehicle.
Exactly what happened next is not recorded, but Byrd's dashcam picked up six shots fired—the autopsy and subsequent search warrants reveal that Byrd was shot four times with a 9mm handgun: once in the chest, and three times in the back of his head.
Byrd's body was discovered by another deputy two hours later after it was noticed that he was not responding to his radio.
Prior to his murder at age 48, Byrd had served with the Wake County Sheriff's Office for 13 years, beginning as a detention officer before transferring to the K-9 unit.
Family Ties
The last name of the four siblings charged in this case is variously listed in court documents and/or reporting as Marin, Sotelo, Marin Sotelo, or Marin-Sotelo; the latter is what is used in this article for consistency.
Arturo Marin-Sotelo
Arturo and Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo made it nearly half-way across the state before being pulled over on I-40 in Burke County on August 16th. The brothers were initially arrested at the time on federal detainers “unrelated to the Byrd homicide.”
The next day, the truck connected with the murder was found in Forsyth County and dive teams were able to find a gun in the nearby Neuse river, and Arturo Marin-Sotelo was charged with murder on August 18th.
According to search warrants, Arturo Marin-Sotelo has confirmed his presence near the scene of the crime when the murder occurred, but claims the murder was solely committed by his brother.
According to his telling of events, he was hunting deer in a nearby field with an AK-47 while his brother Alder Alfonso waited in the truck; when the deputy's vehicle pulled up, he said he heard gunshots, and his brother told him over the phone that an officer had been shot.
However, despite his attempts to separate himself from his brother's conduct, the warrants also lay out how the brothers continued to communicate as they fled the scene and coordinated their flight from the county. Despite switching out their phones, the law enforcement investigators were able to track the brothers' new phones as they left Wake County and travelled west, only to be apprehended by the NC Highway Patrol.
According to reporting by Fox News, Arturo Marin-Sotelo had been apprehended by Border Patrol agents while illegally crossing the border in 2010 near Naco, AZ and voluntarily returned to Mexico—at some later point he successfully evaded law enforcement to illegally reenter the US “on an unknown date, at an unknown place.”
Arturo Marin-Sotelo was 29 years old at the time of his arrest, and is believed to have lived at a South Fisher Street residence in Raleigh, which the police searched.
Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo
In addition to the first degree murder charge in Wake County court, Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo was charged federally with possession of a firearm by an illegal alien after the brothers' August 2022 arrest in relation to a 2021 traffic stop, which he plead guilty to in December 2022.
However, while in federal custody, Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo escaped from Piedmont Regional Jail in Farmville, VA in the early morning hours of April 30, 2023.
His escape was not discovered until over 24 hours later—providing him a head start in the vehicle his sister acquired for him. Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo was able to cross the border to Mexico, only to be apprehended by authorities in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero.
In the period since his recapture on May 4, 2023, Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo's extradition was delayed until US government secured the turn over of the 29 defendants mentioned above.
Like his older brother, Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo entered the US illegally “on an unknown date, at an unknown place.”
Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo was 25 years old at the time of his arrest, and is believed to have lived at a residence in Garner, which the police searched.
Adriana Marin-Sotelo
The third sibling, Adriana Marin-Sotelo, was charged in relation to her assistance in helping her younger brother Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo escape from jail by purchasing a vehicle for him to use in his escape from jail.
Recorded phone calls by another inmate captured the plan: Adriana Marin-Sotelo would purchase a red Mustang for $3,000, and pay a relative of the inmate to leave it near the Virginia jail for Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo to get away in after breaking out.
As a Mexican national present in the country illegally, Adriana Marin-Sotelo faced deportation and possible separation from her four children. However, in exchange for testimony and a guilty plea, the federal government agreed not to deport her, and she was sentenced in November 2023 to 10 months incarceration.
Adriana Marin-Sotelo was 31 years old at the time of her arrest, and resided in High Point at the time of her arrest and sentencing
Rolando Marin-Sotelo
The youngest of the four siblings, Rolando Marin-Sotelo, was pulled over and arrested on August 16th, the same day as his older brothers, after the searches of their phones found information linking to him.
According to court documents, Rolando Marin-Sotelo was accused of operating a vehicle with illegal tint and a fictitious tag, as well as being in possession of ammunition as an illegal alien.
Rolando Marin-Sotelo was apprehended twice as a minor in 2019 while illegally crossing the border. In the first instance, he was returned to Mexico; in the second, he was released into the US with a Notice to Appear scheduled for April 2023.
Police say that Rolando Marin-Sotelo admitted to investigators that Arturo Marin-Sotelo had paid him $300 to sell a red 2005 Chevy Colorado after the shooting, which they believe was the vehicle driven by the two brothers that night. Rolando Marin-Sotelo has been charged with accessory after the fact related to the concealment or destruction of evidence.
Rolando Marin-Sotelo was 18 years old at the time of his arrest, and appears to have resided in Winston-Salem
Law Enforcement Encounters
A review of court documents shows that the two brothers charged with murder had encountered law enforcement a combined total of at least 17 times while residing illegally in North Carolina in the six years prior to the killing, with at least 12 citations for operating a vehicle without a license, as well as citations for speeding, expired/fraudulent insurance and tags, or driving with a revoked license.
These citations primarily happened in Wake County, which began operating as a sanctuary jurisdiction after Sheriff Gerald Baker was elected to office in 2018:
Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo's most recent charges prior to the murder were in Orange County in May 2021 for carrying a concealed gun, operating a vehicle with no insurance, fictitious/altered title/registration card/tag, no operator's license, expired registration card/tag, and expired/no inspection.
Those charges were dismissed by the office of then-Orange/Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall after Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo failed to appear at two court hearings. Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo was charged with “possession of a firearm by an illegal alien” at the federal level only after he was arrested following the murder.
As a 2017 News & Observer article covers, Woodall had a policy for drivers caught without licenses which was specifically crafted with illegal aliens in mind.
Although there does not appear to be an explicit public policy of the same kind in Wake County, it does appear as a matter of fact that there were/are little to no consequences for illegal immigrants who routinely flout basic licensure and registration requirements for operating motor vehicles.
In addition to the numerous contacts with law enforcement, ABC11 spoke with former neighbors of Arturo Marin-Sotelo who described him as a “‘violent’ person and abusive to his then wife.”
caught six times without drivers license and let go. WTF.
Thanks for the update. Hope this story gets wider circulation .