A Sulphur Springs man was found dead in a burned truck on Sunday, and four people have been arrested and charged with capital murder in connection with the case.
The body of Luis Martin Medina, described in a Hopkins County Sheriff's Office release as approximately 50 years old, was identified after sheriff’s deputies responded to a Sunday afternoon call from a man reporting a burned truck with a possible corpse in the back seat along County Road 1186.
Hunt County Sheriff’s Office investigators were called, as well as Texas Ranger John Vance, along with Justice of the Peace Brad Cummings, who pronounced the man dead and ordered an autopsy.
After an investigation, law enforcement officers arrested Charli Sierra Wadley Hodges, a 25-year-old woman, German Manuel Ibarra, a 22-year-old man, Maximino Manuel Ibarra, a 20-year-old man, and Jesus Antonio Hernandez, a 41-year-old man, officials said. The four, all of Sulphur Springs, were all charged with capital murder in connection with Medina’s death.
"It is believed at this time that there was a dispute involving rent and payment that lead to Medina losing his life," an official release stated. "Medina was injured at his residence and eventually taken by parties involved to the CR 1186 location."
Medina lived in the 100 block of Ardis Street in Sulphur Springs, officials said. Hodges told officers she saw the other three suspects kill Medina at his home, took items from Medina’s house after he was murdered, and then drove to the location on CR 1186 to pick up two of the three other suspects after they had burned the truck with Medina’s body inside, according to the statement. Medina died from multiple stab wounds, officials said.
Hodges then took German Ibarra to a local hospital for treatment to burns he received while burning the truck, officials said. Officers described multiple burns on his face and body, they said.
Hodges said she did not call 911 for an ambulance to treat German Ibarra because German Ibarra, Maximinio Ibarra and Hernandez are undocumented foreign nationals, officials said.
Antonio-Hernandez told officers he helped murder Media and remained at the home with Hodges while German Ibarra and Maximino Ibarra took the corpse in the truck to burn both, officials said. Both German Ibarra and Maximino Ibarra admitted to helping stab Medina to death, officials said.
The four are not bond eligible, according to records.
As a footnote to the case, early Sunday evening, an unidentified 60-year-old man, also of Sulphur Springs, was arrested for refusing to leave the scene of the burned truck without getting an explanation from law enforcement officers about what happened, officials said.
The report said a man demanded repeatedly to know what happened and after repeatedly being asked to leave, he finally told sheriff’s deputies that they would have to arrest him to get him to leave. Deputies reported the man smelled like alcohol. He was arrested and charged with interfering with public duties, jailed overnight and released on a personal recognizance bond the following day, officials said.
