Crime News – Page 150 – The Pen Hustle With Brandy Cavalli

Former MTV Reality Show Contestant Charged In 2006 Murder

A former MTV reality show contestant was convicted of a 2006 murder in the Miami area on Tuesday.

Baron Colon, who was a 2009 finalist on MTV’s “From G’s to Gents,” was convicted of killing Marcelo Vera, who was found shot to death in his home in January 2006, the Miami Herald reported. Colon was not arrested until 2011 after confessing the crime in detail to an undercover informant.

The Herald reported that Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez would sentence Colon on Sept. 17 and that “by law, the judge must sentence him to life in prison for the conviction on a charge of first-degree murder.”

Stefany Concepcion, who is now serving 15 years in prison, testified that she aided Colon and two others with gaining access into Vera’s house, where the murder took place. Vera was a 44-year-old Cuban exile art dealer, who was also the son of a former high-ranking government official, the Herald reported.

Colon confessed the crime to his childhood friend, Jerry Rios, back in 2011. Rios was secretly recording the conversation for Miami-Dade detectives, according to the Herald.

Los Zetas Cartel Leader Dies In Prison

Via Associated Press— A leader of the Zetas drug cartel who ordered a 2008 attack on a U.S. consulate has died at a maximum-security prison in central Mexico.

The federal security commission said Tuesday that Sigifredo Najera Talamantes died Monday of a heart attack.
Najera Talamantes was known by his nickname “El Canicon,” or the Big Marble, apparently for his stocky build.

He allegedly ordered the killing of six federal police and the torture and murder of nine soldiers in 2008. He also allegedly ordered an attack in which one man fired on the U.S. consulate in Monterrey and another threw a grenade that failed to explode. Nobody was hurt.

He was on the same cellblock in the Altiplano prison as Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who escaped on July 11.