Suspect in Mesa church-lot slaying arrested at rest stop
State troopers used a police robot at a rest stop to arrest a 19-year-old man suspected in a church-lot killing early Monday.
DPS officials say Robert Jason Biggs was found asleep in the back of the victim’s sports utility vehicle parked at a rest stop on Interstate 8 near Yuma.
Biggs is accused of shooting to death Marco Antonio Torres, Jr., a 20-year-old Mesa resident, during a confrontation in the parking lot of the Central Christian Church in the 900 block of North Lindsay Road in Mesa.
A resident in the 2700 block of East Enrose called police after someone came to the door reporting a shooting had just occurred.
Police found Torres suffering from multiple gunshot wounds after a resident. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Biggs and Torres met around 2:30 a.m for a confrontation over “disparaging remarks” made about Torres and his family, police say.
Authorities say Biggs shot Torres and took his 1997 brown Chevrolet Tahoe. Mesa police issued an alert for the missing vehicle and a U.S. Border Patrol agent spotted a car matching the description around 6 a.m. at the Sentinel rest stop on I-8, said DPS spokesman Officer Frank Valenzuela.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and Yuma County Sheriff’s Office secured the area and an officer noticed a man asleep covered with a blanket in the back part of the Tahoe.
A DPS SWAT unit sent a robot up to the SUV to confirm what the officer saw. Authorities used the robot to command Biggs to surrender, which he did around 9:40 a.m.
Mesa police traveled to the reststop and took Biggs into custody on suspicion of a first-degree murder charge.
The slaying of Torres is the 10th homicide of the year in Mesa. Last year, the city recorded 19 homicides.