Gooding County authorities believe that an illegal immigrant suspected of killing a Hailey man in November is hiding in Southern California.
Carlos Villanueva-Martinez, a 37-year-old Gooding man, has not been charged with the murder but is being sought on an arrest warrant accusing him of grand theft for allegedly stealing the car of the murder victim.
Authorities earlier suspected that Villanueva-Martinez had fled to Mexico, but changed their minds after his alleged accomplice in the murder was found in mid-December in Santa Ana, Calif. Jesus Valencia-Bolanos, 23, an illegal immigrant who also lived in Gooding, has since been extradited to Gooding County and was charged last Thursday with grand theft and accessory to murder in the first-degree.
The men are suspects in the execution-style slaying on Nov. 8 of Gustavo Flores-Quintana, a 30-year-old Hailey man who worked at times in drywall construction in the Wood River Valley. His body was found the morning of Nov. 9 by a duck hunter along the Big Wood River about a mile north of Gooding. He was killed with a single shot in the back of the head with a .22-caliber gun.
Flores-Quintana was a native of Mexico but had legal residency status in the United States and had lived in the Wood River Valley for about 13 years.
Gooding County Sheriff Shaun Gough earlier described the murder as a "drug deal gone bad."
Gough said Friday that Villanueva-Martinez is believed to have pulled the trigger but that Valencia-Bolanos was also involved.
"He's not the shooter, but we know he was there," Gough said.
The suspects are believed to have fled the Gooding area in the murder victim's car, a white Pontiac Grand Am found in San Diego a few days after the killing.
Valencia-Bolanos is being held on $250,000 bond in the Gooding County Jail.
Gough said Villanueva-Martinez is most likely hiding in the San Diego or Santa Ana areas.
Jesus Valencia-Bolanos-
Carlos Villanueva-Martinez
