ROCKVILLE — A Montgomery County District Court judge has ordered the three men accused of shooting two Northwest High School students to death to be held without bond.
Roger Garcia, 19, Edgar Garcia-Gaona, 24, and Jose Ovilson Canales-Yanez, 25, all appeared in court via closed circuit from the county jail. All three were told by the judge that they faced possible multiple life sentences in the killing of Shadi Adi Najjar, 17, and Artem Ziberov, 18, who were shot to death in Najjar’s car June 5 — the night before they were to graduate high school.
Judge John Moffett told each of the defendants, who appeared separately, that they were being held without bond due to the nature of the crime. Moffett called the crime “brutal” and said it had clearly been carried out “with a fair degree of deliberate planning.” He added that it was carried out “with a degree of overkill” — police said 30 shell casings were found at the scene, and that one of the victims was shot 10 times; the other, four. They didn’t say which was which.
Yanez has a criminal history that includes domestic abuse, traffic charges and disorderly conduct, according to charging documents.
In court, prosecutors told the judge that Garcia and Garcia-Gaona should be considered flight risks, in part because a suitcase was found in their car. During the bond hearing, Garcia-Gaona attempted to explain the presence of the suitcase in their car when the defense attorney stood to urge him not to share information about the case — standard advice during bond review hearings.
Outside the courthouse, Najjar’s father, Adi Najjar, repeated his insistence that his son’s death was not a matter of retaliation. Police Chief Tom Manger said Saturday night that the shooting may have been inspired by Najjar’s having robbed one of the suspect’s girlfriends during a drug deal, and the charging documents read that “multiple witnesses interviewed during the course of the investigation stated that Najjar both sold and used marijuana.”
“There is no proof. Do not bad-mouth my beautiful boy,” Najjar said outside the courtroom.
“We raised him right. We loved him. We still love him. He will be in our heart forever and ever,” Najjar said. He vowed he would be present as the case wends its way through the courts — “until they rot in hell,” he said of the suspects to reporters.
The suspects will be back in court for a preliminary hearing next month.
