Corpus Christi Police Department officers arrested 37-year-old Jason Lara in connection with a double homicide at an apartment complex on Kostoryz Road.
Micaela Sudell and Erica Larracuente- Aguero were found dead inside an apartment Saturday at the Windrush complex after police were called to perform a welfare check, CCPD stated in a release.
After being let into the apartments by maintenance, police determined the women had been killed several days earlier. Bullet casings from a .380 caliber gun were found.
Sudell's 2016 maroon KIA Sorrento was also missing.
Police were able to pinpoint Lara as a suspect after the stolen car was used in several convenience store robberies Tuesday. The man arrested for those crimes then told police an associate of Lara's had traded the car to him for three rocks of crack cocaine.
Police then arrested the unnamed associate, who told them Lara — a childhood friend — had gifted him the KIA on May 11.
When police questioned Lara, he admitted to knowing the women and said he had stayed with them in 2021, but had not been to the apartment since then. He said he didn't know anything about the women's deaths.
However, after searching Lara's cellphone, the affidavit states police found evidence that confirmed he had been at the complex on May 10 and 11. Police also found that Lara had previously been connected to a Walther PK .380 — the same caliber used in this shooting — in a different case.
He was arrested in the 2100 block of Airline on an outstanding Unlawful Possession of a Firearm warrant. A capital murder warrant was then secured and served while he was in custody.
He is currently in the Nueces County Jail with bonds of $50,000 for the outstanding warrant and $1 million for the capital murder charge.
An online fundraiser has been established by one of the families to cover funeral expenses for both women.
Sr. Digital Content Producer Ana Tamez contributed to this story.
