A Reading man is being held in Berks County Jail without bail on first-degree murder charges after investigators said video and other evidence contradicted his claim that he fatally shot a man in self-defense inside his residence.
Ismael Echevarria-Vazquez, 51, of the 400 block of South Ninth Street was jailed following arraignment Thursday night before District Judge Kyley L. Scott in Reading Central Court.
In addition to first- and third-degree murder charges, Echevarria-Vazquez faces felony drug-trafficking and weapons charges in the death of Brian Ramirez-Ortiz, 39, of Wyomissing.
An autopsy showed Ramirez-Ortiz died of a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Berks County coroner’s office, which ruled the death a homicide.
Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams said Echevarria-Vazquez flagged down a police officer about 2 a.m. Monday to report that he had shot a man, claiming it was in self-defense. However, neighbors told investigators that they heard gunshots about eight hours earlier, when Ramirez-Ortiz is believed to have been fatally shot.
“As the investigation kind of moved forward, evidence was found that really impacted our decision,” Adams said. “We do not believe there is any sort of lawful self-defense.”
Among that evidence, Adams said, was a large quantity of heroin and a pair of blood-splattered sneakers hidden behind a mattress inside the home.
According to the probable cause affidavit:
Echevarria-Vazquez approached an officer seated in a patrol vehicle in the City Hall parking lot along Cedar Street and said he had shot someone inside his residence and wanted to turn himself in.
The officer got out of the vehicle and removed a 9 mm pistol from Echevarria-Vazquez’s waistband.
Echevarria-Vazquez was escorted into City Hall for an interview while investigators conducted an initial walkthrough of the residence.
Inside, they found a man — later identified as Ramirez-Ortiz — dead on the kitchen floor in the rear of the home. Dried blood was visible from his nostrils, left eye and mouth.
He was pronounced dead at the scene by Deputy Coroner Eric Graef.
Police contacted the property owner, who said Echevarria-Vazquez was the sole tenant and had moved into the residence a few weeks earlier.
Investigators later obtained a search warrant and recovered two 9 mm shell casings from the kitchen floor near the body. They also retrieved a bullet fragment from beneath the body.
Police collected a live 9 mm round from a windowsill in the second-floor hallway leading to the rear bedroom, and another live round from a third-floor bedroom.
In a second-floor rear room, investigators found a pair of blood-splattered sneakers inside a shoebox wedged between a mattress, box spring and wall. Also behind the box spring, on a windowsill inside a light bulb box, they found four bricks of heroin.
A brick of heroin typically weighs about 2.2 pounds.
Surveillance footage also refuted Echevarria-Vazquez’s claim of a break-in, Adams said.
Video from a corner store in the 700 block of Chestnut Street shows Echevarria-Vazquez approaching Ramirez-Ortiz about 11:21 a.m. Sunday. The two are seen talking for several minutes before walking south on South Eighth Street.
About 20 minutes later, footage from another camera shows Echevarria-Vazquez, Ramirez-Ortiz and an unidentified male entering the residence where Echevarria-Vazquez lived.
The video then shows Echevarria-Vazquez and the unidentified man leaving the home about seven minutes later and walking back toward Eighth and Chestnut streets.
The shooting was one of two homicides since Christmas Eve in the city.
On Christmas Day, Tristan Hightower, 41, was found dead in a row house in the 300 block of West Greenwich Street. An autopsy was performed, but the pathologist needed further studies before ruling on the cause and manner of death, Adams said.
Both killings took place in what the district attorney described as rooming houses, referring to homes designed for single-family residency in which rooms are rented to strangers.