John Jefferson
Inset: Rodolfo Cateura Nogueras (Buchanan County, MO Sheriff’s Office). Background: The storage facility in Nebraska where Ariel Varella Herrera was killed (Google Maps).
A Nebraska man called the police to report he shot and killed his roommate, whom he accused of abusing his adult daughter and giving her drugs.
Rodolfo Cateura Nogueras, 40, pleaded no contest in Colfax County District Court to second-degree murder in the death of Ariel Varella Herrera, 45, and second-degree assault in the nonfatal shooting of a neighbor, court documents said.
An affidavit lays out the case that came to light on April 7 at 11:29 p.m. when a call came into Colfax County dispatch.
The Spanish-speaking caller, later identified as Cateura Nogueras, said he had a 20-year-old daughter living with him and a roommate, and the roommate was giving his daughter drugs and abusing her, the affidavit said.
“I’m not calling you to turn him in, I’m calling to tell you I shot him in the head, and I killed him,” he said.
He told the dispatcher where the shooting happened, at a storage facility in Schuyler, about 70 miles west of Omaha. He said he wanted to speak with an officer in person at a local truck stop, but he did not meet up with an officer that night.
At the storage facility, police found blood on the ground and a .22 shell casing outside unit #23. Inside, a sergeant saw blood and another spent .22 caliber shell casing. Authorities found the victim’s body under black plastic tarps in the back of the unit.
Video surveillance footage from a neighboring business showed multiple people in Varela Herrera’s Dodge Caravan coming to the storage unit at 9:33 a.m. After that, the individuals are seen going in and out of storage unit #23 and back into the van.
One man is seen outside the van, looking around, and then going into storage unit #23, which continues throughout the day until 7:52 p.m., when the van leaves. The van then returns at 10:19 p.m. Video shows multiple flashes of light in the van with multiple people inside. Twenty minutes later, a man who appears to be bleeding is seen running from the storage unit.
That man sought treatment at a hospital for a gunshot wound and identified Cateura Nogueras as the person who shot him. During the police interview, the wounded man said he didn’t know where Varella Herrera was.
“He said he was worried about Varella Herrera because Cateura Nogueras told him that Varella Herrera was ‘tied up,”” the affidavit said.
The surviving victim also told police he believed that Cateura Nogueras tried to kill him, shooting him twice — one bullet knocking out a tooth later found on the floor of the storage unit and another that grazed his face and went through his arm, court documents said.
Police tracked down Cateura Nogueras through his cellphone in the early morning hours of April 8 in Missouri. A Buchanan, Missouri, deputy located a Pontiac G-6 parked in a general store parking lot where his phone was pinging. His daughter was with him. Deputies found a .22 caliber Phoenix Arms handgun in the vehicle, court documents said.
Cateura-Nogueras is set to be sentenced on Jan. 22.
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