WATSONVILLE—Two minors and a 20-year-old man have been arrested for their suspected involvement in the October 2021 murder of 21-year-old Abel Ruiz.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Ashley Keehn said deputies arrested Juan Carlos Almaraz Rios and two other suspects, who are not being named because of their age, on murder charges.
Rios is being held in Santa Cruz County Jail, and the other two suspects are in Juvenile Hall.
Keehn did not say what role the three suspects played in Ruiz’s murder.
On Oct. 17, 2021, around 8pm, deputies were dispatched to the area of Carlton and Coward roads in an agricultural section of Watsonville for a person in medical distress.
Upon their arrival, deputies found Ruiz suffering from a gunshot wound. He was rushed to a local hospital where he later died, Keehn said.
