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 Goana, 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.
Outside the courthouse, Najjar’s father, Adi Najjar, repeated his insistence that his son’s death was a case 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.
“There is no proof. Do not bad-mouth my beautiful boy,” Najjar said outside the courtroom.
The suspects will be back in court for a preliminary hearing next month.
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