Third suspect charged in 2024 Allentown homicide
ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan and Allentown Police Chief Charles Roca announced a third suspect has been charged in connection with a fatal shooting last year at Fountain Park that left a 25-year-old man dead.
Wilmer Esequiel Marte-Tavarez, 22, of Lords Valley, was arrested July 11 and is being held without bail in Lehigh County Jail. He is charged with criminal homicide and conspiracy to commit criminal homicide, both first-degree felonies, as well as tampering with physical evidence, a second-degree misdemeanor. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. on July 24.
The charges stem from a June 1, 2024, shooting that killed Angel Martinez-Velez, of Allentown. Police were called to Fountain Park around 6:30 p.m. and found Martinez-Velez fatally shot on the basketball court. The Lehigh County Coroner’s Office ruled his death a homicide caused by multiple gunshot wounds.
Witnesses reported seeing a man in a red jacket, black pants, and a mask flee the scene in a dark-colored Honda, followed closely by a white car. Surveillance footage and city license plate readers captured both vehicles leaving the area at high speed and traveling together through Allentown.
Police traced the vehicles to the East Court Street home of one of the suspects, Carlos Nathaniel Landesta-Agramonte, 19, of Allentown, less than two hours after the shooting. The vehicles — a dark-colored Honda and a white Infiniti registered to Landesta-Agramonte — were seized under a search warrant.
Video footage showed a man matching the description of the shooter exiting and reentering the Honda, placing his hand on a specific area of the vehicle.
Investigators recovered fingerprints from that location and matched them to Marte-Tavarez. Additional footage confirmed his presence at the East Court Street residence shortly after the shooting.
Two other men, Landesta-Agramonte and Grelvis Estevez Cabrera, 28, of Bethlehem, were previously charged in the case. Both face charges of conspiracy to commit criminal homicide and tampering with physical evidence and are awaiting trial.
Chief of Prosecutions Patricia Funtes Mulqueen and Senior Deputy District Attorney Ramma R. Mineo are prosecuting the case.
It remains under investigation by the Allentown Police Department, the Lehigh County Coroner’s Office, the Lehigh County Homicide Task Force, and the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Center.
“As in every criminal case, the fact that arrests have occurred or complaints have been filed is merely an accusation; and the accused, Wilmer Marte-Tavarez, Grelvis Estevez Cabrera, and Carlos Nathaniel Landesta-Agramonte, are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement.
