By Twumasi Duah-Mensah, Virginia Bridges
The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.)
WAKE COUNTY, N.C. — More than two years after Wake County Deputy Ned Byrd was gunned down on a dark rural road, two brothers accused of his murder took responsibility for the cold-blooded killing that shook law enforcement across North Carolina.
On Tuesday afternoon, deputies escorted the brothers into a Wake County courtroom packed with dozens of Byrd’s law enforcement colleagues filling the benches and lining the back walls.
| WEBINAR: Active shooter response: The patrol officer’s complete toolkit
Wearing orange-striped scrubs and with their feet in shackles, Alder Marin-Sotelo and Arturo Marin-Sotelo pleaded guilty for their roles in the Aug. 11, 2022, killing.
Under a plea deal, Alder Marin-Sotelo, 28, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
He had tried to avoid his punishment, escaping prison and fleeing to Mexico, but it may have ultimately saved his life.
Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman explained that to get him returned to the United States after his escape, she had to agree not to seek the death penalty.
If not for that promise, the hearing would have been very different, Freeman said, pointing out that Byrd was shot in the back of the head three times, “execution style.”
“If there was ever a capital [punishment] case, this is the type of case that certainly would have been,” she said.
Arturo Marin-Sotelo, 32, pleaded guilty at Tuesday’s hearing to helping his brother flee, a crime defined in state laws as accessory after the fact of murder. Under his plea deal, he was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
Also at the hearing, Byrd’s sister Mignon Byrd described the slain deputy as a teacher, a mentor and a hero.
“My brother was the helping hand you needed, the protector at all times, even when you didn’t know you needed protecting,” she said.
Mignon Byrd told the brothers she would never forgive them for taking her brother from her and everyone else.
“Who are you to take the kindest person you would have ever met?” she asked.
Before Arturo Marin-Sotelo was sentenced, he spoke to Byrd’s sister through an interpreter, apologizing and asking for forgiveness.
“If she believes in God, I ask her to forgive me because forgiveness will save her heart,” he said.
Alder Marin-Sotelo didn’t speak at the hearing.
Byrd, a 48-year-old New York native, started working for the Sheriff’s Office in 2009 as a detention officer transporting inmates. He became a deputy in 2018 and later a K9 officer. Byrd was passionate about fitness, cycling and the outdoors. He was active in CrossFit and jiu jitsu, The News & Observer reported.
The night he died, Byrd’s body was found on the ground beside his Sheriff’s Office SUV. His K9 partner, Sasha, physically unharmed, was still inside the vehicle.
After Byrd was killed, local, state and federal law enforcement agencies came together to solve the murder of one of their own.
At first, they had only video footage from the SUV’s dash camera and blurry surveillance footage from a nearby gas station.
But by executing search warrant after search warrant, investigators built a trail that led them to the brothers.
On Aug. 11, 2022, Byrd was on his way to the Wake County Law Enforcement Training Center to do some training with Sasha in southeast Raleigh.
It was just after 11 p.m. when Byrd drove down a dark Battle Bridge Road lined with fenced-in fields. He passed a red pickup parked on the left side of the road. He pressed the brakes and backed up, the search warrants state.
In the middle of a nearby field, a flashlight went dark, surveillance video from the gas station showed.
About 13 seconds after Byrd opened his door and got out, three gunshots erupted. And then three more, according to his dash camera video, the warrants state.
Byrd’s dash camera video continued to record for two hours, capturing five vehicles that drove by, but didn’t stop.
After Byrd didn’t respond to radio calls, another deputy found him about 1 a.m. with four gunshot wounds, lying outside his vehicle on Battle Bridge Road.
Sasha, a then 3-year-old black Labrador retriever, and others accompanied Byrd’s body to the medical examiner’s office, and it soon became clear that the shooting had taken a toll on the dog, The News & Observer reported. A veterinarian would later diagnose her with post-traumatic stress disorder, and she was retired from her duties.
In the hours after the shooting, federal and state agencies pooled their resources, seeking dozens of search warrants. They identified the brothers by analyzing 30 days of cellular telephone phone usage in the area where Byrd was found dead.
By Aug. 15, 2022, investigators were watching the brothers in their Wake County homes and following them across the county.
Investigators were also following the brothers the next day, when they tried to flee the state.
Around 5:15 that morning, Alder Marin-Sotelo got into a gold Cadillac Escalade and drove to meet Arturo, who climbed into a Black Chevy Tahoe. The two traveled to Winston-Salem. There, the men’s sister, Adriana Marin-Sotelo, took the Cadillac to have it inspected and to get a new registration plate. The brothers then pulled back onto Interstate 40, heading toward western North Carolina.
Just after 3 p.m., Burke County deputies stopped the men and assisted in their arrest near Morganton. Investigators split the brothers up.
Alder Marin-Sotelo was taken to the Durham County jail and then moved to Winston-Salem, where he would appear the next day on a federal gun charge.
Records show the charge — possession of a firearm by someone living in the county illegally — dated to a 2021 encounter with a state trooper in Chapel Hill. He’d missed two court appearances, and the case sat in limbo until he was tied to Byrd’s murder.
Meanwhile, Arturo Marin-Sotelo had started talking to investigators.
He told police that the night Byrd died, Alder Marin-Sotelo had parked his red pickup off Battle Bridge Road. Arturo Marin-Sotelo had grabbed an AK-47 and headed into the woods, hunting deer, he told police. Then he saw blue lights flick on by the truck. Then came gunfire.
The red pickup left, his brother inside, leaving Arturo Marin-Sotelo behind. Arturo called and asked Alder what had happened.
“A police officer had been shot,” Alder told Arturo, the warrants state.
Alder Marin-Sotelo left, changed vehicles and then picked up his brother up in a different area.
In April 2023, Alder Marin-Sotelo escaped from a Virginia federal detention center, where he was being held on the federal gun charge. His sister, Adriana, and another woman worked with a fellow inmate to provide him with a getaway car.
On May 4, 2023, Alder Marin-Sotelo was arrested in the state of Guerrero, Mexico, where the brothers are from. He remained in Mexican custody until he was extradited to the United States in February. A trial date for Byrd’s murder was eventually set for September 2026.
Adriana Marin-Sotelo pleaded guilty to conspiring to assist or instigate an escape and was sentenced to 10 months in prison on Nov. 17, 2023, federal court records show. She was released from prison Feb. 29, 2024, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
On Tuesday Wake County Sgt. Andrew Staton, who partnered with Byrd for 11 years, said Byrd was the type of person to drop everything and help someone in need.
“Anytime I needed anything work-wise, he would drop everything to come train with me,” Staton said. “If I had something at the house, he would come over and make sure, ‘Oh, OK, I’ve got you. You can go take care of what you need to at the house. I’ll handle the K-9 business.’”
Sasha was in the courtroom as the Sotelos were sentenced. Staton took the dog after Byrd died because he didn’t want her in the hands of someone else who didn’t love and appreciate her the way his former partner did.
“Byrd thought Sasha could walk on water,” Staton said. “He truthfully thought she was the fastest dog, the smartest dog, the best dog. Anything that happened that was wrong, it was 100% Byrd’s fault, and never Sasha’s fault, because she could do no wrong.”
Staton said he was happy the case didn’t go to trial so the focus can shift from Byrd’s death to the life he lived. He said he hoped Arturo’s statement to Mignon Byrd was genuine and that the Sotelo brothers will realize the mistake they made.
“He shouldn’t be gone, and he was taken way too soon, and hopefully they can one day realize that,” Staton said.
Wake County Sheriff Willie Rowe said in a statement after the hearing that “justice has taken a step forward.”
“While this outcome does not erase the pain of that night, this plea brings a measure of closure to Deputy Byrd’s family, his brothers and sisters in public safety, and the entire community he served,” the statement said.
© 2025 The Herald (Rock Hill, S.C.). Visit www.heraldonline.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
