Teacher, acquitted in sex case, charged in drug killings of 2
by David L. Teibel on Mar. 28, 2008, under Local, Special
Valenzuela
One of three men arrested in a January double drug slaying is a former Sunnyside Unified School District teacher recently acquitted of charges of having an affair with a 13-year-old student four years ago.
Netzahualcoyotl G. Ramos, 34, was charged with six counts of sexual conduct with a minor under the age of 15.
He was acquitted last September of the charges, but now is in the Pima County Jail on $1 million bail and facing two counts of first-degree murder.
He is accused in the Jan. 29 killings of Francisco “Harvey” Gonzalez, 27, and Manuel Alcarez, 19. Both are from Tucson, but had a number of street addresses.
The killings, investigated by gang detectives, were determined to be related to gangsters involved in drugs, said Sgt. Fabian Pacheco, a police spokesman.
On Jan. 29, police were sent to a home in the 800 bock of West Calle Colado after a resident told a 911 operator of hearing several gunshots. The caller also told the operator two men had been shot in a home on the block.
When officers got to the home, they found two men in the house who were dead of gunshot wounds, Tucson police said earlier.
Andre Dewayne Mays, 22, was arrested the day after the killings on two counts of first-degree murder. Vincent A. Valenzuela, 21, was arrested the same day as Ramos, also on two counts of first-degree murder.
Mays was identified by a surviving victim as one of the participants in a marijuana transaction at the Calle Colado home. When arrested, Mays admitted being part of the drug deal and being with the others when Gonzalez and Alcarez were shot, according to a court-filed complaint in the case.
Valenzuela, also identified by a surviving victim, told police he took part in the drug transaction and he admitted to shooting Alcarez, according to a complaint filed in his case in Pima County Consolidated Justice Court.
Valenzuela also named Ramos as one of those involved in the drug deal. Valenzuela said he saw Ramos shoot Alcarez and Gonzalez, according to the complaint in Ramos’ case.
Valenzuela and Mays also have been jailed in lieu of $1 million bail.
The complaints provide no other details of the shootings or the marijuana transaction, do not name the surviving victim or say whether that person was shot.
After his acquittal on the morals charges, Ramos told the Tucson Citizen that he no longer wanted to teach and instead would go to school and pursue a law career.
Ramos testified in trial that he suspected his teen accuser had been having an affair with a former student and that when she told him that and he ordered her out of his classroom, she became angry and vowed revenge.
Since his arrest in the double killing, Ramos has declined a request for an interview with the Citizen.
A Sunnyside spokeswoman could not be reached late Thursday.
Citizen Staff Writer Carli Brosseau contributed to this article.
Mays
