Roanoke grand jury indicts second teen in fatal shooting

Nineteen-year-old Anita Otey is charged with murder in the May shooting of Wilson Lenin Abarca-Mejia.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

A second teenager has been indicted in the fatal shooting of a Roanoke man in May.

On Monday , a Roanoke grand jury brought an indictment against Anita Otey, 19, on a charge of murder in the death of Wilson Lenin Abarca-Mejia.

Abarca-Mejia, 30, was discovered by police on the night of May 7, gunned down in the 1400 block of Abbott Street Northwest.

Otey was arrested and charged just a few days later, and online records show she waived her preliminary hearing in Roanoke General District Court.

The following month police also arrested 19-year-old Damonta Jybrell Ingram. Ingram was indicted on a murder charge by a Roanoke grand jury in June, just prior to his arrest.

This week, both Ingram and Otey were additionally indicted on a charge of using a firearm to commit murder.

Search warrants filed in Roanoke Circuit Court said Abarca-Mejia and another man, Juan Berrios, had been riding together in a Toyota RAV4 just before they were fired upon.

Berrios was hit in the arm by the gunfire that killed Abarca-Mejia, but he was treated at a hospital for his injuries and released soon after.

Warrants showed that Ingram’s telephone number was in Berrios’ cellphone and was also the last number Berrios dialed before the shooting.

Police said at the time of Ingram’s arrest that he was found with a gun, but they said then it wasn’t clear whether that weapon was the one used in the shooting.

During the investigation, police searched the Toyota and found marijuana inside , the warrants said.

Ingram and Otey are being held at the Roanoke City Jail.

On Tuesday no court date had been set for Otey, but online records show Ingram is scheduled to stand trial in September.

Monday, August 12, 2013