LAS CRUCES, NM – Jimmy Levi Rogers, the 29-year-old man suspected in the Aug. 16 shooting death of Ezekiel Diaz on Lohman Avenue, was located and arrested Wednesday in California.
Rogers was arrested on a warrant Wednesday, Sept. 22, by law enforcement personnel with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Rogers and 28-year-old Hector Victor Calderon, believed to be the passenger in Rogers’ car at the time of the shooting, are each charged with an open count of murder, two counts of conspiracy and one count of tampering with evidence. Calderon was arrested Sept. 4 in Las Cruces.
Investigators learned that Rogers and Diaz, 40, had an ongoing dispute and were in at least one confrontation prior to the Aug. 16 shooting on Lohman Avenue.
Investigators learned that shortly after 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 16, Diaz was shot after he parked and exited his SUV on Lohman Avenue near Walnut Street. Multiple witnesses described hearing a gunshot and seeing a gray Toyota leave the scene of the shooting. Police arrived to find Diaz on the roadway, near the driver’s-side door of his black SUV. The autopsy of Diaz determined he was struck in the chest by one gunshot.
Police located Rogers’ gray Toyota Corolla on Aug. 17 at a motel on west Picacho Avenue. Investigators interviewed Rogers, Calderon and several individuals who know the pair. Results of the investigation put both suspects at the same place, at the time of the shooting.