BOSTON, July 13, 2017—The second of two men identified in the 2016 homicide of Carlos Villatoro-Nunez has been apprehended in Texas and is expected to return to Massachusetts tomorrow to face arraignment on a murder charge, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

JORGE MELGAR FUENTES (D.O.B. 2/28/98) was arrested on June 7 by Homeland Security Investigations agents in Houston and later held on a June 30 East Boston Municipal Court murder warrant. Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the Suffolk County Detective Unit and State Police Gang Unit today traveled there to take custody of Fuentes at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

Fuentes is the second person to be charged in Villatoro-Nunez’ stabbing death at the Belle Isle Marsh in East Boston. MORIS JAVIER LANDAVERDE (D.O.B. 11/94/95) of East Boston was indicted May 1 for first-degree murder and is currently held without bail.

The 16-year-old victim’s body was found in the area of the Bennington Street entrance on Dec. 9, 2016, almost a month after his family reported him missing. Though decomposition and other factors initially complicated the death investigation, authorities believe he sustained fatal stab wounds.

Because the area is State property maintained by the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the investigation into Villatoro-Nunez’ homicide was led by State Police detectives assigned to Conley’s office with the assistance of the State Police Gang Unit.

Witness statements, cell phone records, and physical evidence from the scene suggest that Fuentes and Landaverde undertook the homicide in the course of gang-related activity and that Villatoro-Nunez’ slaying was not random.

“Police and prosecutors worked patiently, methodically, and professionally over many months to reach this point,” Conley said. “But this is not the end of the case. That day will come only when we speak for a 16-year-old murder victim in a Suffolk County courtroom.”

Fuentes is expected to return to Boston tomorrow afternoon and will be arraigned in East Boston Municipal Court on Monday.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.