Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Stepmom Charged in Pregnant Texas Teen's 'Execution-Style' Murder

Episode Date: January 11, 2024

San Antonio police have arrested a third person, Myrta Romanos, in connection to the murders of pregnant Texas teen Savannah Soto and her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra, last month. Court documents say Romanos denied being part of the coverup but surveillance video told another story. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with retired NYPD cold case sergeant Joe Giacalone about the arrest in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show that delves into the biggest stories in crime.HOST:Angenette Levy: twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A third person charged in the murder of Savannah Soto, her unborn son and her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra in Texas. Part of the brutal crime caught on camera, shocking those following the story. A retired homicide sergeant is here to weigh in on the most recent arrest. I'm Anjanette Levy. It's Thursday, and this is Crime Fix, Law and Crime's look at the biggest stories in the world of crime. The murder of Savannah Soto, her unborn son, and her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra, is nothing short of tragic and sad.

Surveillance cameras captured the murder in San Antonio, Texas last month, just two days before Christmas. Soto and Guerra were in a gray Kia captured on surveillance video. Here's a San Antonio PD spokesperson to bring us up to speed. Back on December 23rd, Leon Valley PD reported that Savannah and Matthew Guetta, they were reported missing to their jurisdiction. On December 26th, SAPD officers received a call for a disturbance. When those officers made that location, they discovered the bodies of Savannah Soto and Matthew Guetta.

They were found deceased in their vehicle, the Kia Optima, that had also been reported missing. Earlier this month, on January 3rd, 19-year-old Christopher Preciado and his dad, 53-year-old Ramon Preciado, were arrested and charged with killing Soto, the unborn baby, Guerra, and moving their bodies. But the investigation wasn't over. There was a lot of information on social media that there was a third individual involved. Our homicide detectives were aware of that. However, we were looking for enough probable cause to make that arrest and to present the best case forward to the DA's office. Police say that third person is Myrta Ramones. Police say she's possibly Christopher Preciado's stepmother.

She's charged with tampering with evidence, altering, destroying, and concealing a corpse and abuse of a corpse. And the evidence tying her to the crime is surveillance video from their home, according to police. That video surveillance shows her at the home right after the murders. And she was seen on video surveillance leaving in that black truck that we all saw on the surveillance video. And then returning to her home with Christopher and Ramon in that truck. That tampering with evidence, from what we understand, she stated that was her gun. So we do know that that was her weapon. So how did police know that a third person was involved?

Video doesn't lie. Our homicide detectives were aware early on in the investigation that there wasn't a third person involved. We know that from the video surveillance, when there is that towel that everyone's talked about being thrown. At that time, we just didn't have enough evidence to say that that was Ms. Mirtha Romanos. Police say Romanos is not cooperating.

You saw her with her head down during that perp walk. They believe that Savannah Soto, Matthew Guerra, and the unborn baby Fabian were killed in the area of Preciado's home. An arrest affidavit quotes Savannah's family as telling police that Matthew sold drugs and had been shot at in the past. Police said Christopher Preciado admitted that Matthew and Savannah went to his home so Matthew could sell marijuana to him. But then Christopher claimed Matthew pointed a gun at him and he was able to grab it and manipulate it, which resulted in Savannah being shot. But detectives say that version of events doesn't line up with the evidence. Joining me to discuss this latest arrest is somebody who's been following the case very closely. He's Joe Giacalone. He's a retired cold case sergeant with the NYPD and also host of True

Crime with the Sarge on YouTube. And his show is doing really well. Joe, welcome to Crime Fix. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me, Anjanette. Joe, what do you make of police making this third arrest? They were able to make the first two arrests pretty quickly and now they've arrested the stepmom in the case. So your thoughts? Yeah, the police have done a great job putting this case together. They did it pretty quickly and they seem to give a hat tip out to the public in regards to that possible third person in the vehicle. And they said it more than once about, you know, information that led the police to look

further into the video. And I think that was a good move on their part, too, to thank those people who pointed that out. What do you make of what police are saying? It sounds like some type of motive in this case. They're saying that Savannah Soto's relatives said that her boyfriend, Matthew Guerra, sold drugs and had been shot at in the past and things of that nature. And it sounds like this had something to possibly do with a marijuana sale. And who knows what happened with that. I mean, it's a very sad case. We have a pregnant woman with her boyfriend and allegedly they were going to this house to make a deal,

or at least the boyfriend was. Yeah, the police have been pretty transparent in this. They say that both of these victims were active drug dealers where they were using the internet and the cell phones in order to do this stuff. They really haven't told us the exact motive. Was it robbery? Was it a deal gone bad in another aspect? Was it over an argument about how much it should have been and that kind of thing?

We don't know any of those details at all flush out as, you know, of course, the case proceeds. And, you know, they have in San Antonio, they give them 90 days to come up with a grand jury and an indictment. So I think we'll learn more information over the next couple of months. And, of course, when the trial comes on, they'll be building out their probable cause and explaining to everybody how they came to the realization that these three individuals were involved in the crime. It sounds like it didn't take long to make this arrest, obviously. They always suspected a third person was involved because they had that surveillance video where they said that they could see the towel and everybody saw the towel. That was the big talk on social media that people were like, there's somebody throwing a towel. And they thought, you know, they said

Christopher was driving the Kia at that point. So it probably wasn't too hard to connect the dots. They said they just had to track down some surveillance footage. Yeah, this is what I refer to as the three forensic horsemen. Video surveillance, cell phone records, and internet records. And that's how law enforcement is putting these cases together now moving forward. They're really three target-rich environments for evidence and information about these cases. And they found at least Savannah's phone initially in the car, which led them, I believe, to the suspects. And then everything else kind of falls apart at that point for the suspects.

You know, they go to the house. He makes some spontaneous utterance that that's the father. You know, basically, I know why you guys are here. So all of that will be used against them in the court when it happens. But it's actually been an interesting case to see how fast it's developed and how fast, you know, the San Antonio Police Department has actually been transparent about things. You know, the press conferences, the perp walks, which, you know, I understand the perp walks is just, you know, one or two things I don't like about it, like letting people really get on top of the suspects.

I mean, especially in the state of Texas, we should know about the history of letting people into these perp walks because things can happen badly. But, you know, the issue that comes down to, they've done a great job. The investigators did a good job. And I'll tell you what I like about this is the leadership in the police department giving credit where credit's due to the detectives and the supervisors in this case. Yeah, JFK and Jack Ruby, you know, the JFK assassination, Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald, that comes to mind when you talk about perp walks and Texas, and that's going back a long time.

They have been pretty transparent about this, though, as you said. You know, surveillance video, we've talked about this before, Joe, you and I have, how surveillance footage, surveillance cameras are everywhere. It's everywhere.

So I guess I'm just thinking to myself, you know, you can't get away with anything anymore. At least it appears that way. And that, of course, makes me think this wasn't planned. And if it was, it was a really, really bad plan if it went down the way police said it did. Yeah, sometimes, you know, when people panic, do they forget about these things, right? You know, surveillance videos are everywhere. And this is, you know, this isn't a residential property, so to speak. This isn't like from a bank or where most people, you know, believe that the video surveillance is, but they're on street corners. They're in, you know, houses, doorbells that people have on their things. And I believe

there is a lot more video evidence in this that we don't know about yet that we'll see during the trial. But, yeah, they did a great job with the canvassing, putting that stuff together, securing that video, and then putting it out to the public because it's an important aspect. You know, they might have thought that this was, you know, bigger than it initially was in regards to, you know, chance of retaliation and those kind of things.

So they got it out there to let the public know, this is the truck we're looking for. This is the person we're looking for, even though they didn't have a really, you know, it's kind of blurry and grainy. But he was a very big, big guy. So if somebody knew who he was with that truck, they probably tipped them off pretty quick. So Joe, they don't believe there are any more suspects in this case. They think they've wrapped it up. So any final thoughts on that? Do you see these cases going to trial? Do you see these cases ending in plea deals? There are convictions, obviously, all three of these people are going to prison for a very long time. Yeah, the actual besides the murder charge, right? So what they're waiting to see if they're going to

add a third murder charge to the son. But it looks as if, I was just reading the Texas Penal Code, it looks as if the stepmom is getting hit with a much higher felony than her husband is in regards to that tampering with the evidence. And that could go up to almost a 20-year sentence. So that's an interesting aspect of this whole thing, because remember, it's her gun that was involved in this incident, too, according to the police. So as I said, there's maybe a few more surprises and the police have said yes. There are no more suspects, but I think we need to learn more about the motive

and what was behind this and where the drugs came from, how long this has been going on. And we also need to learn, they use the word narcotics and marijuana, which under the federal definitions are two different things. So there's more to the story that we'll find out. Joe Giacalone, thank you so much.

We really appreciate your time and hope you'll come back sometime. We appreciate it. Anytime, Anjanette. Thanks for having me. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix on Thursday, January 11th, 2024. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks for being here with us. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Until then, have a great night. You can download Crime Fix on Apple, Spotify, Google,

and wherever else you get your favorite podcasts and new episodes post each weeknight at 6 Eastern time on Law & Crime's YouTube channel. Daniel Camacho does our video editing. Our head of social media is Bobby Zoki. Our senior director of social media is Vanessa Vine. Savannah Williamson is one of our producers. Diane Kay and Alyssa Fisher book our guests.

And Brad Mabey is our audio editor.