Man deported twice charged with second Nashville murder in a week
Kevin Joel Castro-Garcia is charged with criminal homicide in the shooting death of a man reported missing on Oct. 5.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Metro Nashville Police said a man who has been deported to Honduras twice has been charged in a second murder this week.
Police said Kevin Joel Castro-Garcia is charged in the murder of Brandon Rivas-Noriega, 26. Rivas-Noriega was last seen driving his mother’s Ford Focus on Oct. 3. He was reported missing on Oct. 5 after the family received messages from him that he was in trouble and needed money.
During the missing persons investigation, police learned that Rivas-Noriega visited a home on Fanning Drive. During a search of the home on Monday, detectives found the owner’s manual for a Ford Focus, Rivas-Noriega’s driver’s license and paperwork for property on Rural Hill Road.
Detectives went to the Rural Hill Road address and found the Ford Focus parked behind an abandoned trailer. Decomposing human remains were found in the car’s trunk.
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An autopsy determined the body was Rivas-Noriega. Police said several tattoos had been cut away from the victim’s body. Rivas-Noriega died from multiple gunshot wounds, police said.
Police said Castro-Garcia, 31 is alleged to have shot Rivas-Noriega inside the Fanning Drive home. He is charged with criminal homicide and abuse of a corpse.
Castro-Garcia was charged with criminal homicide on Tuesday for the fatal shooting of Elmer Nahum Miranda-Martinez, 37. His badly burned body was found on Sept. 27 in the trunk of a car that had been set on fire and left in a wooded area off Franklin Limestone Road.
Police said Castro-Garcia is a native of Honduras and had twice been deported from the United States. He is now jailed in lieu of $1.1 million bond.
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