PROVIDENCE -- A Providence County grand jury handed up indictments Friday against four men who allegedly committed three separate high-profile crimes in the Blackstone Valley.
Simon Pacheco, the 27-year-old Mexican national of no fixed address who was charged with the August slaying of an elderly man in a Central Falls senior citizens' housing complex, was indicted on one count of murder and two counts of larceny under $500.
State police say trace evidence linked Pacheco to the fatal stabbing of Matias Hernandez, 68, in his Forand Manor apartment at 30 Washington St.
The larceny charges stem from stolen items from the murdered man, including a 1986 Buick, which Pacheco allegedly used to flee to Indiana after the stabbing. Pacheco was arrested in a friend's Indianapolis apartment shortly after the slaying on a Rhode Island warrant for an unrelated drug charge, as well as federal immigration charges.
He was extradited to Rhode Island and held on the pending state drug charge, while Health Department scientists analyzed bodily fluids found at the crime scene that police say link him to the murder.
The grand jury also indicted Pawtucket resident Jesus Montijo on one count of first-degree child molestation.
Montijo, 45, of 626 School St., was ordered held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions after being charged with sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl at the day-care center his wife, who is not suspected in the case, operated in their home.
The investigation that led to Montijo's arrest began June 7, when a DCYF caseworker contacted the Pawtucket Police Department with information about the alleged molestation, according to the police.
Indictments were also handed up naming two men, Tarik Ruff and Jayson Manzano, as the people responsible for the shooting death of Alex Urzua, 19, of Shrewsbury, Mass., who was killed by a single gunshot wound to the throat on Maple Street on June 6.
Ruff, 26, of 97 Morin St., Woonsocket, and Manzano, 19, of Providence, were indicted on one count each of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit an assault with a dangerous weapon, discharging a gun during a crime of violence, using a gun during a crime of violence, possession of a gun after having been previously convicted of a violent crime, and other charges.
Both men face life terms for charges related to Urzua's murder.
Pacheco, Montijo, Ruff and Manzano are all scheduled to be arraigned at Providence County Superior Court on Dec. 18.
