Officer Tells Court Man Confessed To Shooting

A 20-year-old Leesburg painter confessed in a jailhouse interview to fatally shooting a neighbor after being jealous of the man's relationship with a woman they both dated, a Loudoun County sheriff's deputy testified Thursday.

Narciso Landero-Pons "indicated that he did shoot" Jose Eduardo Santos-Machado, 27, with one bullet to the head on the evening of Jan. 16, Sgt. Jay R. Conner said in Loudoun General District Court. He testified during a preliminary hearing to determine whether there was enough evidence to send the first-degree murder and felony gun charges against Landero-Pons to a grand jury.

Judge Julia T. Cannon ruled there was ample evidence, rejecting public defender Bonnie Hoffman's request that the homicide charge be reduced to second-degree murder. Hoffman argued that the evidence did not prove the shooting had been premeditated, suggesting that the gun was "meant to scare," not kill, Santos-Machado.

The shooting was prompted by a relationship both men had with Oneyda Monjaras Villacorta, 29, according to authorities and court testimony. Villacorta shared an apartment with Landero-Pons and her brother's family on Fort Evans Road NE in Leesburg.

Landero-Pons came to the United States illegally from Mexico three years ago, according to court records. Santos-Machado lived a few blocks from Landero-Pons in a townhouse he had bought with a brother in 2005.

Speaking in Spanish, Villacorta testified that although she had a relationship with both men, she loved only Santos-Machado, a fellow immigrant from El Salvador who had a work visa and held jobs at the Wal-Mart and IHOP in Leesburg. They grew up in the same town, she said.

The four-hour hearing offered new details about the homicide, a crime that is rare in Loudoun. Villacorta testified, for example, that Landero-Pons uttered the Spanish word for "widow" when he returned to the apartment on the night of the shooting, dressed in black.

She told Loudoun Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Sean P. Morgan that she "didn't pay much attention because I was on the phone."

But in the months before the shooting, she said, Landero-Pons repeatedly told her he did not approve of her relationship with Santos-Machado.

"I said, 'Well, you should look for another room,' " said Villacorta, whose testimony was translated by court-appointed interpreters. She testified that Landero-Pons once told her that Santos-Machado was "looking to get killed."

In the jailhouse interview, Landero-Pons "did indicate he was jealous" of her relationship with Santos-Machado, said Conner, the deputy.

Landero-Pons, wearing leg irons and a striped orange-and-white uniform, listened quietly with his head bowed as Villacorta and four deputies and Leesburg Police Department officers testified about the events of Jan. 16.