EDITOR’S NOTE: Technically, this kidnapping incident started in Tukwila, not Burien.
Two men have been charged by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in what prosecutors describe as a premeditated, violent kidnapping and attempted murder of a woman who was shot and left for dead along Interstate 90 in January.
Kevin Daniel Sanabria Ojeda, 24, and Alexander Moises Arnaez-Gutierrez, 25, are each charged with attempted first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery, and vehicle theft. Ojeda entered a plea of not guilty during his arraignment on Feb. 27 in King County Superior Court. Bail for both men has been set at $1 million.
The charges stem from a horrifying series of events that began the night of Jan. 21, 2025, when Maria Guadalupe Hernandez Velazquez, 58, was abducted at gunpoint outside her Tukwila apartment after returning home from work. According to charging documents, the suspects had been surveilling her for weeks and knew she lived alone.
Hernandez was forced into the backseat of a car, assaulted, and tortured—including having her hand drilled with a power tool—until she provided her bank card PINs.
She was then driven to eastern Washington, shot, and thrown from a vehicle near Snoqualmie Pass. She survived by playing dead and later flagged down help on the side of the highway.
Court documents said:
“[They] told her the bears would eat her… They drilled into her hand and took her jewelry, her car, and left her for dead.”
“This case demonstrates a sophistication and pre-planning and a level of violence that is alarming,” prosecutors wrote in a request for high bail.
Authorities say Ojeda later admitted to his role in the kidnapping and identified Arnaez-Gutierrez as an accomplice. Federal agents tracked Ojeda to Illinois, where he was arrested at a Red Roof Inn and found in possession of stolen jewelry and a handgun. Arnaez-Gutierrez was later arrested in Mercer Island.
Both suspects are being held pending trial. A third suspect, identified in court documents as “Daniel,” is still under investigation.
While prosecutors did not alleged any gang affiliation in charging documents, the suspects’ level of planning and brutality has raised broader concerns about organized criminal activity. Police said that they have “probable ties to the gang Tren De Aragua.”
Prosecutors cited the need to protect the public and ensure the defendants’ appearance in court as reasons for the high bail.
Defendants are innocent until proven guilty in court.
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From KOMO News:
