Fugitive murder suspect back in court

By Ana Bottary

abottary@abc6.com

@anabottary

Fall River- Pedro Torres, who sent authorities on a wild chase across Rhode Island and Massachusetts last month, stood before a judge Thursday.
Fall River police took to the stand describing the warrants police obtained on September first, and after the swat team came out of the house with Torres.
 
"Once they informed me that they had him in custody they brought him outside. "and what did you do at that point?" at that point they told me there was some stuff in there that I may want to look at referencing drug paraphernalia,"says Officer Brandon Wixon, of the Fall River Police Department.
 
After hearing drugs were in plain sight, police then obtained a second warrant.

"When we see evidence in plain view, our common procedure would be to freeze the scene and obtain a search warrant to collect all of the evidence at one time," adds Officer Wixon.

During that search they discovered guns in the home, the 36-year-old is facing multiple charges. In Puerto Rico, he is charged with 3 counts of homicide.
In Rhode Island, he faces fugitive and firearm charges. His attorney questioned his outstanding murder charges in Puerto Rico.
 
"There is a warrant supposedly for murder, but it just seems unlikely or improbable that they would have held him without bail on a murder charge. Mr Torres tells me that, that case against him has been dismissed," says Attorney James Hanley.
 
Family members outside the court echoed that thought.

"Them charges in Puerto Rico, that’s a lie. They got dropped."

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