LV restaurant shooting suspect captured in N.M.

Keith Paul

Friday, June 30, 2000 | 10:27 a.m.

A man wanted in connection with a 1996 shooting death outside of a Las Vegas restaurant was apprehended Thursday in Albuquerque, N.M.

Carlos Torres, 29, was arrested by a task force of FBI agents and officers about 5 a.m. Thursday in connection with the Dec. 30, 1996, shooting of Alfonso Lazaro in the parking lot of El Matador Restaurant, 2645 S. Maryland Parkway. Torres was charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

A Clark County jury this morning was deliberating the fate of Torres' brother, Geovanny Torres, whose trial on the same charges in connection with the slaying ended Thursday afternoon.

The brothers had been charged and jailed shortly after the slaying but the charges were dropped in 1997 when witnesses could not be located to testify. When witnesses were located, the brothers were indicted again by a grand jury in March 1999, but by then the brothers could not be located.

Geovanny Torres, 27, was apprehended in April in New Mexico when officers raided a house looking for drugs.

Geovanny Torres is accused of arguing with Lazaro inside the restaurant. Apparently the two had a conflict dating back to the time when they were staying at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba before immigrating to the United States.

Following the argument, Geovanny and Carlos Torres left and waited in their car. Lazaro was shot several times, according to testimony.

One of the witnesses testified that he saw Carlos Torres shoot Lazaro in the parking lot of the restaurant and that Geovanny Torres was driving the car they used to get away.

That witness, Eduardo Rojas, said he, too, was shot by Carlos Torres. Under cross-examination, Rojas admitted he has been convicted of a drug offense since the shooting.

Deputy Special Public Defender Daren Richards, however, told jurors that not only is there no physical evidence to tie Geovanny Torres to the scene, but the state's two main witnesses aren't to be believed.

Rojas said the Torres brothers left a short time later, and he and Lazaro left the bar about 45 minutes after that. As they left, Rojas said, he saw Geovanny Torres behind the wheel of a white Cadillac and Carlos Torres in the front seat. Two other men were in the back seat.

Rojas said he and Lazaro split up to go to their respective cars, and he heard shots ring out. When he turned around, he saw Carlos Torres shooting at Lazaro over the top of the passenger door. When he yelled, "Are you crazy?" Carlos Torres started shooting at him, he said.

The Torres brothers then drove off, Rojas said. When he checked on Lazaro and found him dead, Rojas said he went home and his wife tended to the gunshot wounds to his leg.

Rojas said he didn't go to the police for seven days because he was scared.