Jury convicts Modesto man of murder over sale of ‘bunk’ pills
A Stanislaus County Jury this month convicted a Modesto man of murdering another man over the sale of fake pills in 2018.
At the conclusion of a two-week trial, the jury found 32-year Junior Ramiro Suarez guilty of murdering Domonique Lewis, according to a press release from the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office. The jury also found him guilty of shooting into an occupied vehicle and found true an enhancement that Suarez personally used a firearm.
Authorities say that on Aug. 12, 2018, Lewis, 30, and his girlfriend were in a vehicle in the parking lot of an Arco am/pm minimart at Fifth and I streets in downtown Modesto.
“Investigators later discovered that Lewis was at the location to conduct a drug transaction and that Lewis had been selling fake or ‘bunk’ pills to a friend of Suarez,” according to the press release.
As Lewis was waiting in the passenger seat of the car, Suarez and another man walked up to the vehicle, pulled out firearms and shot Lewis three times as his girlfriend was attempting to get away.
Video surveillance from the nearby market captured the killing and officers were able to identify Suarez and the other man, Angel Samuel Contreras, both of whom were known to the Modesto Police Department. Contreras, 23, was arrested a few days after the shooting, and Suarez less than a week later.
Suarez and Contreras are being tried separately. Contreras’ trial is scheduled to begin in June. District Attorney’s Office spokesman John Goold said case law requires separate trials for co-defendants if prosecutors intend to use their statements, even if just to show they lied, at trial.
At the time of the murder, Suarez was on parole, having been recently released from prison where he had served time for assault with a semiautomatic firearm done for the benefit of a street gang.
Suarez returns to court on March 21 for a court trial on his prior convictions, which may be used to enhance his sentence for the murder.
This story was originally published March 19, 2022 at 12:13 PM.
