GARNER, N.C. — A Charlotte man wanted in connection with a fatal shooting at a North Carolina motel was arrested Friday at a trailer on a hog farm in Pitt County, according to the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office.
José Francisco Banegas-Quintanilla, 28, faces charges of murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and possession of a stolen motor vehicle in the Oct. 11 death of 37-year-old Victor Manuel Martinez-Rivera at the Super 8 Motel on Leone Court in Garner, North Carolina.
Johnston County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the call at the Super 8 Motel at approximately 8:50 p.m. Upon arrival, deputies located Martinez-Rivera dead in a second-floor room with gunshot wounds and Johnston County EMS pronounced him dead at the scene.
Detectives determined Banegas-Quintanilla drove away from the motel in Martinez-Rivera’s vehicle following the shooting. Investigators tracked Banegas-Quintanilla from Johnston County to Charlotte and back east to Kinston, N.C., where officers found the victim’s vehicle abandoned in a business parking lot.
Over two weeks, investigators analyzed surveillance video footage and conducted interviews across North Carolina before locating Banegas-Quintanilla on Friday at the Pitt County farm trailer. Detectives secured a search warrant for the premises and arrested him without incident with assistance from the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office and the Greenville Police Department.
Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell praised the law enforcement officers who tracked the suspect across multiple jurisdictions.
“This investigation involved a tremendous amount of old-fashioned detective work, with detectives traveling back and forth across the state of North Carolina, following leads and interviewing multiple people. Our detectives never wavered until the murder suspect was in custody,” Bizzell said.
Deputies returned Banegas-Quintanilla to Johnston County on Friday night. He is being held without bond in the Johnston County Jail on charges of murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon and possession of a stolen motor vehicle.
Multiple agencies assisted the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office during the investigation, including the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, Wake County Sheriff’s Office, Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office, Pitt County Sheriff’s Office, Kinston Police Department, Greenville Police Department, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol Air Wing Division.
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