Murder charges filed against suspect in Mattawa triple homicide

EPHRATA, Wash. -- Authorities say the suspect in a triple homicide near Mattawa told them he was angry at the victims for having allegedly raped a girl in the past.

J. Guadalupe Martinez-Lopez, 24, made his first appearance in Grant County Superior Court this afternoon.

He was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, said Grant County Prosecutor Angus Lee, who filed the charges this morning.

There was no additional information on the rape allegations included in a report released Thursday by the Grant County Sheriff’s Office.

“We do not know who he is talking about at this point and I don’t know if that’s going to be a further investigation — or if it’s just a point of diversion,” said Grant County Undersheriff John Turley. “He was very vague about that.”

Only one of the victims, Pedro Rivera Sanchez, 21, of Mattawa, has been identified so far.

He and another man were found dead in a trailer about two miles southwest of downtown Mattawa. Sanchez died en route to a local hospital.

A third man was lying on a road about a mile south of the trailer.

Martinez-Lopez is also suspected of several armed robberies in the area, including two in Sunnyside. Authorities arrested him there Tuesday night at a popular Mexican restaurant shortly after a nearby convenience store was held up at gunpoint.

— Melissa Sánchez