John Jefferson
Background: U.S. Highway 281 (KENS). Inset: Eiber Gabriel Sira-Vargas (San Antonio Police Dept./KENS).
A suspected killer is behind bars in Texas after an alleged would-be murder target told police he pretended to be dead in order to save his own life.
Eiber Gabriel Sira-Vargas, 29, was arrested in connection with the July killing of 19-year-old Alexis Jose Vegas, who was found by a stretch of road with multiple gunshot wounds. According to San Antonio ABC affiliate KSAT, a passerby spotted Vegas’ body near a drainage ditch off a stretch of southbound U.S. Highway 281 at around 3:30 p.m. on July 1. Police found shell casings and zip ties near the victim’s body — but no clues as to who the killer was.
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Investigators got a break in the case, however, when they learned about an armed robbery that left a man shot, injured, and hospitalized just hours before Vegas’ body was found. Local CBS affiliate KENS reported that the man, who has not been publicly identified, was initially “not forthcoming” with police, according to the arrest affidavit.
But he later revealed that he was with Vegas when he was killed. He and the victim had been kidnapped by three armed suspects and forced into a vehicle, KENS reported.
“While in the suspect’s vehicle, Witness 1 indicated that the suspect in the front passenger seat aimed a firearm at him throughout the ordeal,” the affidavit says, according to the report. “He was able to describe the location where the suspect vehicle stopped, which matched the scene of the crime.”
The kidnappers eventually stopped the car and told Vegas and the man to get out of the car. At that point, the man told police, the suspects opened fire, striking both of them with bullets.
The man said that he pretended to be dead until the suspects left, KENS reported.
He was later able to identify Sira-Vargas from a photo lineup.
According to court records, Sira-Vargas is charged with aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon and capital murder by terroristic threat or other felony. He has a pre-indictment hearing scheduled for Jan. 29, 2025.
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