Man charged in Wake County deputy’s murder pleads guilty to federal charge
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Alder Marin-Sotelo pleaded guilty to federal charges tied to his 2023 jail escape.
- Marin-Sotelo still awaits trial for the 2022 murder of Wake County Deputy Ned Byrd.
- He faces up to five years in prison and a $250K fine at sentencing next month.
One of the two brothers accused of fatally shooting a Wake County deputy in 2022 pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to escaping from jail.
Alder Alfonso Marin-Sotelo, 28, will be sentenced next month on a charge of conspiring against the United States, according to court documents. The charge stems from Marin-Sotelo’s April 30, 2023, escape from Piedmont Regional Jail in Farmville, Virginia, where he was being held as he awaited sentencing on a charge of possession of a firearm while being in the country illegally.
Marin-Sotelo and his brother, Arturo, are each charged with murder in the Aug. 11, 2022, death of Deputy Ned Byrd, 48, who was found fatally shot by his patrol vehicle in rural Wake County. Byrd’s K-9 partner, Sasha, was discovered unharmed in Byrd’s vehicle.
The brothers’ Wake County charges are pending trial, and the pair have requested their cases be separated, as The News & Observer previously reported. It took years for Alder to be extradited from Mexico, where he had fled after his 2023 escape, and he wasn’t returned to American soil until February.
Adriana Marin-Sotelo, Alder and Arturo’s sister, pleaded guilty in 2023 to helping Alder escape, The N&O previously reported. She worked with another inmate in the Piedmont Regional Jail to provide Alder with a getaway car and tried to get another sibling to hide his escape from police, according to court documents.
When Alder is sentenced next month, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a potential fine of up to $250,000, according to the terms of his plea arrangement.
