Lawyers argue police had no right to raid apartment where Springfield murder suspect was found

SPRINGFIELD -- The complex, multi-defendant case involving the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Kenneth Lopez was back in court Wednesday, with four defense lawyers arguing police should not have been granted a warrant to search an apartment where the accused shooter was arrested.

While the murder warrant that led to the arrest of Lee Rios isn't in dispute, the attorneys have taken issue with the broader search warrant, which led to the arrest of three other people on gun charges.

But a prosecutor in the case told Hampden Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney Wednesday the search warrant was justified because the 196 Nursery St. apartment was the first place Lee Rios went after the slaying -- making it he most likely location for investigators to find forensic evidence. 

Lee Rios, 24, is charged with murder in the killing of Lopez, whose body was found around noon on March 25, 2015, in the yard of a house at Dwight and Calhoun streets in the city's North End.

Wednesday's hearing involved lawyers for Lee Rios, his brother Nelson Rios, Natalie Rivera and Maria Torres. 

All four were arrested in the April 2, 2015 raid, when officers entered the Nursery Street apartment with a search warrant, and a murder warrant for Lee Rios. Mary Anne Stamm, lawyer for Lee Rios, said she is not attacking the arrest of Lee Rios on the murder warrant.

Instead, the officers' entry into the apartment is at issue. The Rios brothers, Rivera and Torres were charged with firearms offenses in connection with items found during a search of the apartment. Prosecutors have since dropped firearms charges against Rivera, but she still faces a conspiracy charge. 

Timothy Farris, lawyer for Maria Torres, said a witness told police she saw the four defendants in the Nursery Street apartment after the shooting.

That witness, identified at the hearing as Valerie Medina, said Lee Rios called her on March 28, 2015 and asked if he could stay at her Jefferson Avenue apartment.

Medina is also charged with conspiracy in the case.

Because Medina then saw Lee Rios at the Jefferson Avenue apartment, Farris argued, police at that point had no information that the suspect would be at the Nursery Street apartment. Medina then saw Lee Rios at her own Jefferson Avenue apartment. 

In addition to the potential for investigators to find forensic evidence at the Nursery Street apartment, Assistant District Attorney Max Bennett told the judge Lee Rios kept the murder weapon in the apartment until he sold it. 

Sweeney took the motion about the search warrant under advisement. 

Additional motion

The lengthy hearing also featured arguments regarding a motion Stamm filed on behalf of Lee Rios objecting to the seizure of a letter the defendant sent from the Franklin County Jail, where he is being held, to a woman in Connecticut.

The letter, which Stamm's motion seeks to exclude from evidence, contained statements "that could be considered admissions" in the murder case, Bennett said.

Jon Goodell, assistant supervisor for security at the Franklin County Sheriff's Department, testified Wednesday that he got permission to intercept Lee Rios' outgoing mail. He said 99 percent of the jail's inmate mail goes out without being intercepted.

Goodell said monitored phone calls indicated Lee Rios was trying to arrange for someone to send a drug known as K2 to him via letters so he could sell it to inmates.

Bennett said people can spray the the drug onto paper and write letters to be sent to an inmate. The inmate can then sell strips of the paper, he said.

Goodell said K2 is "a very dangerous drug" which can get people "extremely high" and make them "deranged, violent."

Under questioning from Stamm, Goodell acknowledged there was no reason to believe there was a link between the Connecticut woman and the people involved in phone conversations with Lee Rios about K2. 

Goodell said when he read the outgoing letter he saw references to a murder case and turned it over to the Springfield Police Department.

Sweeney took Stamm's motion under advisement. 

Motive outlined

In laying out a motive for the shooting, Bennett has said Lee Rios had a problem with Lopez, but convinced the victim he wanted to straighten things out. Moreover, Bennett said, the accused shooter offered to help Lopez with a problem he was having with another person.

The prosecution says Lee Rios and Lopez shared a cab to the area where Lopez was shot. Bennett said Lee Rios fired five shots, striking Lopez four times -- twice in the head. 

After shooting Lopez -- who was also armed -- prosecutors say Lee Rios took Lopez's handgun from him.

According to a witness, Bennett said, Lee Rios admitted to stashing both guns in a backyard and calling his brother, Nelson Rios. The two brothers then brought the guns to 196 Nursery St.

Jonathan Guevera, 20, of Springfield, is also charged with murder in the case, although he is not accused of firing any of the shots. 

Several other defendants face conspiracy and other charges in connection with Lopez's slaying.