Opinion ID: 4103821
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Police Interviews

Text: At approximately 7:45 p.m. on August 20, 2002, Harris County Sheriff’s Deputy Miguel Gonzalez and Detective Alejandro Ortiz met Sorto and a confidential informant in a hotel room. Sorto told the officers that although he was not a participant in the offense, he had seen Edgardo Cubas and Eduardo 2 Case: 16-70005 Document: 00513780048 Page: 3 Date Filed: 12/01/2016 No. 16-70005 Navarro abduct Rangel and Capulin and had followed them to a remote location. Sorto claimed he left the scene of the crime when he heard gunshots. Considering Sorto a witness to the crime, Detective Ortiz asked him to continue the interview at the Harris County Sheriff’s homicide office. The police and Sorto traveled to the police station in separate vehicles. During a videotaped interview that commenced at 9:52 p.m., Sorto initially repeated the story he had told the officers at the hotel. At 10:48 p.m., Detective Ortiz asked Sorto to provide a saliva sample to the police. Sorto was “kind of stunned” by the request and asked: “What is this exam? Is it pretty good, 100 percent or what?” According to Detective Ortiz, after providing the saliva sample, Sorto began to change his story. Sorto said that after Cubas had shot the two women, Cubas forced Sorto to return to the scene and have sexual intercourse with Rangel’s corpse. Around 11:21 p.m., the police read Sorto his Miranda warnings in Spanish, although they still did not consider him to be in custody. During a series of interrogations that occurred over the next few hours, Sorto admitted to committing several crimes, many of which involved Cubas. At 1:10 a.m., after learning that Sorto had an outstanding arrest warrant, Detective Ortiz formally took Sorto into custody. In an interview beginning around 8:25 a.m. the following morning, Sorto gave the police a third version of the events—he admitted that he had participated in sexually assaulting Rangel but maintained he was not involved in the women’s murders.