Aron Isait Medina Rojas (Apple Valley Police Department).
A man is accused of killing his girlfriend”s friend’s boyfriend after a night of arguing in Minnesota.
Aron Isait Medina Rojas, 20, faces a charge of second-degree murder for the killing of Daniel Isaac Aguilar, 21, according to Dakota County court records.
On Sunday, July 6, at about 3:12 a.m., officers with the Apple Valley Police Department responded to an unspecified street over a report of a “non-responsive male lying on a sidewalk.”
The body of the man – revealed to be Aguilar – reportedly had a “significant amount of blood around him,” as well as what police believed was a puncture wound to the left side of his chest.
“His body was still warm to the touch,” the court document states. Aguilar was declared dead at the scene.
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Officers said they searched the area and “located what appeared to be a blood trail” leading up to the victim’s body, as well as personal items, a broken glass jar, “and some cans and bottles of alcohol in a driveway to the east of where Victim’s body was found.”
The blood trail is said to have started about 50 feet east of the driveway, according to investigators.
Police located nearby surveillance footage that showed the victim walking about 35 minutes before they were dispatched to the area, the court document alleges. In the footage, vehicle headlights came into view a minute later and the voices of two men and likely one woman could be heard.
“The voices sound elevated, as if they were arguing,” the document reads.
The next minute, a man who was not Aguilar – later alleged to be Rojas – can be seen walking toward Aguilar as the victim backed away, according to police. The suspect is said to have struck the victim in the left chest area.
“I’m f–ing walking home bro,” Aguilar reportedly said. “Let me be.”
But Rojas is alleged to have then punched Aguilar in the area near his throat; the victim collapsed where police would later find him.
The suspect and another person – believed to be a woman – then walked toward Aguilar, according to the document, and the woman “pointed an illuminated phone” at the victim as she and the suspect approached.
They then walked out of camera range and are believed to have left, as the headlights turned around.
As police began investigating, they learned what transpired in the hours before the stabbing.
Family members of Aguilar said he was with his girlfriend at a club in Minneapolis on the night of Saturday, July 5.
When officers went to speak with the girlfriend at her home, she reportedly left and led them back to the crime scene, where she appeared to be looking for something. She later admitted that she was looking for his phone.
The couple had been arguing at the club, Aguilar’s girlfriend told police. Meanwhile, her friend kept calling her asking her why she was out with him because Aguilar had allegedly cheated on her, she said.
The girlfriend reportedly told her friend that she “hated” Aguilar. The girlfriend’s friend is said to have been Rojas’ girlfriend.
Aguilar and his girlfriend left the club and drove to a Minnesota Valley Transit Authority parking lot in Apple Valley “where they continued arguing,” the document says. At this time, the friend said she and Rojas were coming to get Aguilar’s girlfriend.
Aguilar walked away just as Rojas and his girlfriend drove into the parking lot, authorities said. The second couple told Aguilar’s girlfriend – who had been crying – that they would take her to a friend’s house, a detail Rojas’ girlfriend later also told police.
The document adds, according to the victim’s girlfriend: “While driving away, they saw Victim walking and Defendant asked [Aguilar’s girlfriend] if Victim had a ‘strap on’ which [Aguilar’s girlfriend] understood to be a gun. [Rojas’ girlfriend] and Defendant dropped [Aguilar’s girlfriend] off and left the friend’s house. When Victim’s phone location didn’t change for several hours, [Aguilar’s girlfriend] went to the location to see if she could find the phone.”
Rojas’ girlfriend later spoke with police and told them that after dropping Aguilar’s girlfriend off, on their way back to Rojas’ home, they saw Aguilar walking and stopped. Rojas’ girlfriend said she exited the car and confronted him, but Aguilar “became aggressive with her,” causing Rojas to also leave the car.
She said that a fight ensued and as it continued, she saw Aguilar “extend an arm before sitting down on the sidewalk.” Rojas returned to the car “with blood on his shirt and told her they had to leave.”
The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled Aguilar’s death to be “multiple sharp force injuries and the manner of death was determined to be homicide.”
Rojas has not been apprehended. Police believe he may be trying to flee to Mexico, according to Minneapolis-based ABC affiliate KSTP.
