From the Office of CJ Robinson District Attorney – 19th Circuit
Chilton County, Alabama – Abraham Perez and Noel Esquivel, who previously pled guilty, were sentenced Friday for the murders of three men who were shot and their burned bodies found in Chilton County back in 2022. Amazing job by our local law enforcement and our team at the DA’s Office.
On July 2, 2021, the burned remains of three victims, Gabriel Alonzo Rios Jr., 24, Gilberto Munoz Cabrera, 37, and Javier Quintero Gonzalez, 36, were found in an SUV in the woods near Chilton County Road 5014. Once the deceased were identified through DNA samples, Chilton County Sheriff’s Office investigators were able to determine the victims had traveled to Alabama from Tennessee. Autopsies established that at least two of the victims suffered from gunshot wounds prior to their bodies being burned.
In January 2022, Abraham Perez and Noel Esquivel were each charged with three counts of Murder and one count of Attempted Murder. Perez and Esquivel were in the United States illegally and involved in drug trafficking. Both defendants pled guilty to Murder with a sentence of 35 years. On Friday, Dec. 20, 2014, Circuit Judge Amanda Baxley sentenced Perez to serve 32 years of the 35-year plea agreement. Esquivel was sentenced to serve the full 35 years in the Alabama Department of Corrections.
District Attorney CJ Robinson said, “This case was solved by a team of dedicated law enforcement, prosecutors and forensics professional from nearly a dozen agencies across the southeast. These men and women worked to identity victims and build a solid case against these two defendants who never should have been in the U.S. Many people come to our county, work hard, pay taxes and contribute to their community. But not in this case!
“This was especially hard because out of three victims and two defendants, only one was in the U.S. legally and everyone was involved in drug trafficking. Our local agencies could easily have deferred to federal and out-of-state agencies to work this case since the only connection to our circuit was the drugs being imported and dump sites for the bodies, but a lack of confidence in potential outcomes kept us motivated to see it through
“I am always grateful when we can remove drug dealers and murderers from our community, and I appreciate the commitment to seeking the truth and pursuing justice by all involved.”
