Last Suspect in Teen’s Murder Surrenders

The third and last suspect in the shooting death of 17-year-old Rosendo Ibarra has surrendered to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, police said Friday.

Garden Grove police had obtained a warrant for Joseph David Kehler’s arrest on charges of murder and street terrorism, and had been looking for him since Monday.

Kehler, 23, walked into the Sheriff’s Department in Santa Ana at 12:20 a.m. Thursday and surrendered, Garden Grove Police Detective Mike Handfield said. He is being held in Orange County Jail on $250,000 bail.

In previous statements to police, Kehler has said he drove several teen-agers to a Garden Grove shopping center on April 30 when Ibarra was gunned down at a pay phone there, but he said he did not know the others were planning to kill Ibarra.

Handfield, however, said Friday that Kehler was involved in the plot and supplied the gun that was used to kill Ibarra.

The gun was thrown out the window of Kehler’s car a few blocks from the murder scene, where police later recovered it, Handfield said.

“We were taken to the gun by an informant, and we had information that Kehler was seen with a gun that matched that identical description the day before the shooting,” Handfield said. “We’re alleging that he provided the gun that was used in the shooting. That makes him a principal.”

Two other suspects, Martin Rene Rodriguez, 21, and a 15-year-old boy whose name was not released because of his age, are already in custody. The boy was arrested in a police raid Monday. Rodriguez surrendered at the Garden Grove Police Department on Tuesday. Police charge that Rodriguez fired the shots that killed Ibarra. Rodriguez told relatives he was turning himself in because he was innocent.

Kehler is expected to be arraigned in Orange County Municipal Court in Westminster on Monday, Handfield said.