Hector Hernandez-Valdez, 15, wasn’t just killed in a home on Tacoma’s East Side on Friday. He was butchered, authorities said.
Pierce County prosecutors allege two brothers, ages 16 and 14, attacked Hernandez-Valdez with a knife and a shank, stabbing him dozens of times before dumping the dying boy into the bathtub where one of the teens cut his throat.
The idea was to minimize the blood spilling on the floor of their mother’s home, court records state.
They then stashed his body in a recycling bin, the records show. Police found it there after the teens’ mother turned them in when she came home for lunch and found her living room covered in blood.
“Investigators stopped counting stab and slash wounds suffered by the victim at 34,” court records state.
Prosecutors on Monday charged Luis Alberto Arroyo, 16, and his brother, Cristobal Ivan Arroyo, 14, with first-degree murder. They also charged the elder Arroyo with one count of first-degree robbery.
Not guilty pleas were entered on Luis Arroyo’s behalf in Pierce County Superior Court, where he’s being tried as an adult. Commissioner Meagan Foley ordered him jailed in lieu of $2 million.
“This was a particularly brutal murder that played out over a significant amount of time,” deputy prosecutor Phil Sorensen said in requesting the $2 million bail.
Cristobal Arroyo made a first appearance in juvenile court Monday where he was ordered detained pending a hearing to determine whether his case would be transferred to adult court.
More than two dozen friends and relatives of Hernandez-Valdez, mostly teens, attended Luis Arroyo’s arraignment. Many wore T-shirts bearing the dead teen’s photograph on the front.
A handful of older women huddled in the front row, hugging and crying softly through the proceeding. They left court without comment.
Hernandez-Valdez lived in Tacoma and went to Lincoln High School, the Medical Examiner’s Office and Tacoma School District reported.
A crisis counseling team was at Lincoln High on Monday to talk to students and staff members traumatized by Hernandez-Valdez’ death.
Prosecutors contend Hernandez-Valdez had gone to the brothers’ home in the 800 block of East 52nd Street to meet with Luis Arroyo. Luis Arroyo told detectives he called Hernandez-Valdez and invited him to come over to smoke marijuana.
Hernandez-Valdez lived two blocks away, and the older brother suspected he sold pot in addition to smoking it, court records state.
Prosecutors allege the older brother armed himself with a knife before Hernandez-Valdez arrived.
As the teens walked upstairs, Luis Arroyo claimed, Hernandez-Valdez punched him a couple of times without provocation. The 16-year-old said he then stabbed the victim in the face and a violent struggle ensued.
Cristobal Arroyo reportedly heard the fight and saw his older brother fighting over the knife with Hernandez-Valdez.
“He armed himself with a ‘large nail’ and joined in, stabbing the victim,” according to a statement by prosecutors.
At one point during the struggle, Hernandez-Valdez reportedly turned to Luis Arroyo and said, “I thought I could trust you,” court records show.
Prosecutors allege the brothers then took the injured Hernandez-Valdez to the bathroom and threw him in the tub.
“The victim was still alive ...,” according to the prosecutors’ statement. “One of the brothers cut his throat to kill him.”
The brothers were trying to clean up when their mother came home for lunch. The blue recycling bin was in the living room and towels with reddish-brown stains were on the floor.
The boys first told her they were making chili and had spilled. They later told her a man had attacked them and they were forced to kill him, records show. The mother went upstairs and saw Hernandez-Valdez lying on a sheet.
She then went to a nearby police substation and reported finding a body in her house. When officers arrived on 52nd Street, the body had been placed in the recycling bin and moved outside.
Detectives found two “BB” guns, a knife, a machete, a shank and trash bags filled with used cleaning materials inside the house. They also found nine small packages of marijuana, a cellphone and $166 cash on Luis Arroyo, the records state.
“Luis told investigators that the marijuana and money belonged to (Hernandez-Valdez) and that the items fell out of (the victim’s) pockets during the struggle,” records show. “Luis knew the exact number of bags as well as the exact amount of cash involved.”
Neither brother suffered injuries aside from some scratches on their hands, prosecutors said.
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