Police: Suspect in fatal Ada County stabbing was avenging mother’s killing in Nampa
Police said Wednesday afternoon that the suspect in a fatal stabbing near Avimor targeted a man who was believed to have killed the suspect’s mother on Tuesday.
Nampa Dispatch received a 911 call for the 2100 block of West Grouse Street at 8:43 p.m. Tuesday, according to a Nampa Police Department news release. First responders arrived to find 52-year-old Michelle Luna, of Nampa, with several stab wounds. Luna died at the scene despite life-saving efforts from emergency personnel, the release said.
Police said they suspected Jesus Urrutia, 39, of Nampa, to be the killer, and local law enforcement agencies attempted to locate him overnight.
The Ada County Sheriff’s Office then received a 911 call shortly before 7 a.m. Wednesday, and deputies were directed to the parking lot of a Chevron gas station near the entrance of the Avimor community north of Eagle, spokesperson Patrick Orr told the Idaho Statesman in an email.
They found Urrutia “slumped over in a car” with a stab wound, according to a release from the sheriff’s office. The parked car was running at the gas station at the corner of East Beacon Light Road and Idaho 55.
Deputies removed the man from the car and began first aid until paramedics arrived, the release stated.
“Paramedics took the man to a local hospital, where he was declared dead a brief time later,” according to the release.
Police identified Luna’s son, Raul Cuevas, 31, of Nampa, as the suspect in Urrutia’s stabbing. Cuevas was taken into custody. Cuevas has been charged with first-degree murder and is in the Ada County Jail, according to online records.
Daulton Stachler, a manager at the Chevron, told the Statesman that Cuevas came into the Chevron and used the gas station’s phone to call law enforcement and turn himself in.
“Investigators are still figuring out why the stabbing occurred at a gas station parking lot in Avimor in north Ada County, which is over 25 miles and several towns away from Nampa,” the sheriff’s office release indicated.
An Ada County Coroner’s Office release Wednesday said that Urrutia died at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center just after 8 a.m. The cause of death was listed as “sharp force injury” to his chest.
This story was originally published March 29, 2023 at 3:57 PM.
CORRECTION: This story was updated July 23, 2024, to correct the spelling of Jesus Urrutia’s name.
