BENTONVILLE — Two Rogers men pleaded not guilty Monday to charges in connection with a May drive-by shooting.
Mario Torres-Rios, 18, is charged with attempted capital murder and first-degree unlawful discharge of a firearm from a vehicle. James Carranza, 21, is charged as an accomplice to attempted capital murder and accomplice to discharge of a firearm from a vehicle in the first degree.
Torres-Rios is being held on $1 million bond in the Benton County Jail. Carranza is being held in jail on $500,000 bond.
Both men appeared before Circuit Judge Brad Karren.
Torres-Rios is the suspected shooter in the May 18 incident in Rogers in which Jose Quiroz was shot four times in the upper torso and required surgery, according to court documents.
Rogers police received a report of gunshots in the area of North Third and West Persimmon streets at 12:14 a.m. Police later received a call from Mercy Medical Center about a man at the hospital with gunshot wounds, according to court documents.
Brad Abercrombie, Rogers Police Department detective, interviewed Quiroz and witness Freddy Medina at the hospital. Quiroz told Abercrombie that Torres-Rios and Carranza had been at Medina’s residence at 503 N. Third St. earlier that night and threatened Medina. Quiroz told police he was walking toward Carranza’s car when someone stuck a gun out of the window and shot him, according to court documents.
Carranza was identified as the driver and registered owner of the car during a traffic stop later on South Eighth Street. Police found a bullet shell casing jammed in the rear passenger’s side window seal of the vehicle, according to court documents.
Carranza later admitted he was present at the shooting, according to court documents. He told police he was driving when “Oso” — Torres-Rios — shot from the passenger’s side window.
Police later found a Glock .40-caliber pistol, according to court documents.
Torres-Rios and Carranza are scheduled to appear in court again Aug. 15.