Arraignment was rescheduled Friday to next week for a convicted sex offender who’s accused of killing an Iraq War veteran, whose body was found wrapped in a tarp inside the trunk of an abandoned Lexus in Anaheim, and holding another man hostage.
Antonio Silva Lopez, 27, was charged Wednesday with murder and kidnapping for ransom-extortion. He is now scheduled to enter a plea to the charges on Wednesday in the jail courtroom in Santa Ana.
Lopez, 27, is accused of killing Adrian Darren Bonar, a 34-year-old Escondido resident, on Oct. 4. The victim’s body was found inside the trunk of a Lexus that was discovered abandoned Oct. 17 on Santa Ana Canyon Road west of Gypsum Canyon Road, underneath the connector road of the Riverside (91) Freeway to the Foothill (241) Toll Road.
California Highway Patrol officers were preparing to tow the car but found “suspicious” objects that led to the discovery of the body.
Evidence in the case led investigators to the defendant’s home in the 2500 block of north Bristol Street in Santa Ana, where police went to serve a search warrant on Monday night, Anaheim police Sgt. Daron Wyatt said.
More than four dozen SWAT officers from area police agencies helped arrest Lopez, “who was uncooperative,” Wyatt said. He was taken into custody after being struck by a 40-millimeter foam tip projectile, authorities said.
Police found a man inside the residence who was allegedly abducted between last Friday and Monday and held hostage for ransom, Wyatt said, along with two kilograms of fentanyl valued at about $60,000, as well as numerous firearms. The victim, whose name was not released, was taken to an area hospital and was later released, he said.
Anaheim police Sgt. Shane Carringer told the Los Angeles Times that detectives are “still investigating and determining what the relationships and motives between all involved parties could possibly be.”
“Our department threw every possible resource we had at this crime, and that was nonstop work for the past four weeks,” he said.
Bonar served in the U.S. Army from 2005 through 2009, when he was honorably discharged. He saw combat in Iraq, Wyatt said.
According to court records, Lopez pleaded guilty in October 2014 to statutory rape of a 12-year-old relative in Santa Ana and was sentenced to a year in jail.
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