DES MOINES — The wife of a Des Moines triple murder suspect told police that she was present for the killings, according to new search warrant documents obtained by Local 5.
32-year-old Marvin Esquivel Lopez, a twice-deported man from Guatemala known to federal immigration officials as Marvin Oswaldo Escobar Orellana, is charged with three counts of Murder in the First Degree.
He is accused of fatally shooting 29-year-old Rossibeth Flores-Rodriguez and her two children, 11-year-old Grecia Daniela Alvarado-Flores and 5-year-old Ever Jose Mejia-Flores, the night of July 16.
All four were residents at 1003 Day Street in Des Moines, where Esquivel Lopez allegedly shot the victims but waited to call police.
A new search warrant application for various cell phones found at the scene was obtained by Local 5.
During an interview with a Des Moines police detective, the wife of Esquivel Lopez said that “after the defendant arrived home, she witnessed the defendant get into a violent argument with Rossibeth Flores Rodriguez, and that during this argument the defendant pulled out a handgun and shot Rodriguez”, the application reads.
She also stated that Flores-Rodriguez called Esquivel Lopez by phone “shortly before” the shootings occurred.
Esquivel Lopez is scheduled to go to trial on January 27, 2020. He is being held at the Polk County Jail on a $3 million cash-only bond, and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.