By Adriana M. Chavez
El Paso Times
EL PASO, Texas — A man wanted for murder in Minnesota was arrested Tuesday at a Fabens convenience store by El Paso County sheriff’s deputies, who were assisted by a popular car security device.
Sheriff’s spokesman De puty Jesse Tovar said Jerome Kinta West, 33, of St. Paul, Minn., was arrested about 6:40 p.m. at the Fast Track store and gas station, 1790 N. Fabens, by Deputy Eric Orozco, a field training officer, and Deputy Joe R. Rodriguez, a trainee who graduated just last week.
Deputies received information on West from sheriff’s dispatchers who were alerted about West’s location by the OnStar system in the white Pontiac G6 that West was traveling in, Tovar said.
Tovar said deputies approached West and another man inside the store and asked them for identification. Once West’s identity was confirmed, he was arrested without incident, Tovar said.
West remained in the El Paso County jail on Wednesday without bond and was awaiting extradition to Minnesota.
West and three other men were charged Monday by the Ramsey County, Minn., attorney’s office in the shooting death of Leon Dewaun May, 32. According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper, May was shot 15 times Thursday night.
Tovar said this might have been the first time El Paso deputies used OnStar to catch a crime suspect. “We’ve worked with OnStar in the past in locating accidents and some stolen vehicles,” he said, “but this is the first time we recall using OnStar to apprehend a fugitive.”
Copyright 2008 El Paso Times