5 El Paso homeless people charged in burned body death
Five homeless people arrested in connection with the burned body found in a Downtown building last week.
They are:
34-year old Jesus Barraza, El Paso, charged with murder.
22-year old Jerry Lynn McGavitt, El Paso, charged with murder.
19-year old Thomas McNair, El Paso, charged with murder.
28-year old Marcus Adkins, El Paso, charged with failure to report felony offense.
18-year old Brittney Stewart, El Paso, charged with failure to report felony offense.
El Paso Police say that the victim, who has been identified as a male, had been beaten, gagged, bound, and burned by the arrestees.
Barraza, McGavitt, McNair and Adkins have been booked into the El Paso County Jail.
Stewart is in custody in San Angelo, Texas and is expected to be returned to El Paso, police said.
The victim’s positive identification is pending and additional charges are possible.
El Paso Electric Company employees found the body in the basement of the building at 101 N. Mesa at about 9 a.m. Sept. 5, 2014.
Barraza and Adkins had come through El Paso and stayed at the Rescue Mission on Paisano Drive in years past. Barraza stayed for a few days in 2010 before showing up drunk and being asked to leave, and Adkins only stayed for one day in 2012.
Blake Barrow, director for the Rescue Mission, said that guilty or not, homeless people face the same challenges as everyone else for crimes like these.
“Typically, the first thing is you’d look at, well, does this person need a bond reduction,” Barrow said. “Do they deserve a bond reduction. And the issues there are are they likely to re-offend if the judge lets them out, or are they a flight risk.”
