An Illinois defendant accused of killing a local man is now facing several additional felonies and misdemeanors in Bartholomew Superior Court 1.
Eliel Avelar, 31 was originally facing one charge — murder — in the Feb. 26 shooting death of 37-year-old Leobardo Rodriguez Flores of Columbus. Flores was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head in the parking lot of Tool Dynamics, located on South Marr Road. Almost a month later, Avelar was arrested in Chicago and returned to Bartholomew County from a Cook County jail.
On Friday afternoon, Bartholomew County Prosecutor Bill Nash dismissed the original case against Avelar and filed a new case with seven additional felony charges added to the murder charge in Bartholomew Superior Court 1.
In addition to murder, Avelar now is also facing charges of armed robbery as a Level 3 felony; auto theft as a Level 6 felony; three separate counts of obstruction of justice as Level 6 felonies; intimidation as a Level 6 felony and unlawful possession of a firearm by an alien.
Nash also filed three Class B misdemeanor charges of criminal mischief against Avelar.
The probable cause affidavit in the newly-filed case starts in a similar way to the original case, where a witness who had been dating Flores produced multiple phone recordings where a man who was jealous of the victim, Abraham Jimenez Cesareo, could be heard offering a man $2,000 to break Flores’ bones. The man refused Cesareo’s offer, the affidavit stated.
Police then interviewed another woman, identified as Eladia Jacobo Ortiz, who said she introduced Cesareo to Avelar on Feb. 10. After receiving money from Cesareo, Alevar agreed to hurt Flores, court documents state.
On Feb. 26, Ortiz and Cesareo met with Avelar at a State Street convenience store. The three got into a car driven by a man later identified as Esam Mohammad Abujouedh, who was only called “The Arab.”
The new probable cause affidavit contains an April 2 interview with the defendant, who told an Indiana Gaming Commission agent that he had been living in the Baymont Hotel in Calumet City, Illinois, with a girlfriend. Avelar told the agent that he was born in Mexico but had been living in the U.S. for 16 years, the affidavit states.
Avelar said Cesaro prepared to attack the victim by putting a plastic bag over the license plate on the car, the affidavit states.
Avelar said when they arrived at Tool Dynamics, he approached the victim with a .45 caliber handgun as Flores was getting out of his car, and asked him if he knew two children Avelar claims to have fathered. He said that after hearing Flores respond with “Sorry, sorry, sorry,” he shot Flores as he bent down.
The defendant claimed he only wanted to scare the victim, not kill him, the affidavit states. But he said he jumped into Flores’ car and drove it off because he wanted the killing to seem like a robbery.
Ortiz told detectives that she received a call from Cesareo between 11:40 p.m. and midnight with Cesareo saying he saw Avelar shoot and kill Flores, the affidavit states. During the conversation, Avelar demanded another $2,000 from her and $7,000 from Cesareo, the affidavit states. Avelar told the two he had driven Flores’ car from the scene.
A search warrant revealed Ortiz later received threatening phone and text messages from Avelar demanding more money, the affidavit states.
During her interview, Ortiz identified Avelar as the person who was hired to hurt Flores, and Cesareo also identified Avelar as the man from Chicago he met with three times, and gave $2,000 to in the gas station parking lot, the affidavit states.
Cesareo told police that after dropping off Ortiz, the men went to La Rancherita II at 2241 State St. and then to Tool Dynamics where they waited for Flores in the parking lot, the affidavit states. When the victim arrived, Avelar got out of the vehicle, said something to Flores and fired one shot in Flores’ direction, the affidavit states. Avelar then got into Flores’ car and drove it away to make it look like a robbery, the affidavit states.
The men met at the La Guanajuato facility where Avelar parked Flores’ car, the affidavit states. The men then went back to Cesareo’s residence where Cesareo gave Avelar another $1,200, and Avelar and “The Arab” left, escorted out of town by Cesareo and his brother, the affidavit states.
