DeLand, FL – A Volusia County judge partially approves and denies requests made by a Deltona man facing the death penalty for killing his wife and her 2 kids over 2 years ago.
7th Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano submitted a ruling the day before Thanksgiving on various motions filed by the attorneys for Luis Toledo in his triple murder case.
In a November 10th hearing at the Volusia County Courthouse, Toledo’s attorneys argued that the 33-year-old man was illegally arrested and questioned by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office after Yessenia Suarez and her children – 9-year-old Thalia Otto and 8-year-old Michael Otto – disappeared in October 2013.
In his ruling – which you can read in full by clicking here – Zambrano determines that Toledo’s arrest was legal but did grant his request to ban certain statements made to law enforcement based on investigators not reading him his Miranda rights beforehand. One of the statements allowed in was a confession that he killed Suarez and her kids.
VCSO says Toledo – who lived with the 29-year-old Suarez and his step-kids at a home on Covent Gardens Drive – made that admission after Suarez allegedly cheated on him with a co-worker .
Toledo has entered not guilty pleas for all 3 murder counts and authorities have not found any of the bodies despite search efforts made by VCSO as well as by some of Suarez’s family members. All 3 are presumed dead at this point by VCSO.
During the November 10th hearing, Toledo’s defense team said his arrest was invalid because the Lake Mary Police Department – which had charged him with battery in a domestic incident at Suarez’s job the day before she went missing – arrested him in Deltona and took him to Volusia County Jail, something they say LMPD didn’t have the authority to do.
The defense also claimed VCSO continued to question Toledo without an attorney present while he was in custody even though he had asked for an attorney at least 3 times.
Prosecutors argued that Toledo knew he was free to go back to his jail cell at any time during questioning because he hadn’t been charged with the murders and that Toledo voluntarily kept talking to investigators after he was Mirandized and he was told they weren’t going to find an attorney for him.
The prosecution claims that Toledo wasn’t invoking his right to legal counsel but was demanding that investigators find an attorney for him, something they’re not legally required to do.
Toledo’s trial is scheduled to start on January 11th after numerous attempts by his legal team to have it delayed for various reasons, including because of complications stemming from Hurst v. Florida, another death penalty case that’s been taken up by the United States Supreme Court.
Toledo’s legal team has also asked the judge to move the case outside of Volusia County due to heavy media coverage and to ban from the jury from hearing about Toledo allegedly being a high-ranking member of the Latin Kings gang. No ruling has been made on those motions.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.