NC road rage murder trial delayed after judge excludes immigration evidence
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Jury selection, set to start Monday, was delayed.
- Judge excluded evidence about the defendant’s alleged illegal U.S. immigration status.
- Prosecutors are appealing the judge’s exclusion, prompting the delay.
A family that had hoped to see the trial begin Monday for the man accused of murdering their relative in a suspected road rage shooting instead left court facing another delay.
“Hopefully, we can get justice eventually,” said Felisha Manica, a relative of Ricardo Baez Cardenas.
Baez, a 35-year-old Durham father of two, was driving his Chevrolet Silverado to work on March 7, 2025, on Interstate 40 in Wake County, his family said.
Just after 6 a.m. that day, an interaction with another driver led to Baez’s being shot through his window and his truck hitting a guardrail on the interstate between Aviation Parkway and the North Harrison Avenue exit, according to court records. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Josue Alejandro Quintanilla-Reyes was charged with murder in Baez’s death, and jury selection for the trial was set to start Monday.
The trial is now delayed to allow prosecutors to appeal a judge’s Monday decision to exclude evidence related to Quintanilla-Reyes being in the United States illegally.
What happened during the fatal shooting on I-40
According to court records, a witness recorded the shooting on a cell phone. The video shows Quintanilla-Reyes driving a white Honda Accord alongside Baez's truck in the left lane while firing through the passenger-side windows of his car. The gunfire shattered the truck’s windows, spraying glass across the highway and onto the Honda and the witness’s vehicle, Wake County and federal court records say.
Court documents indicate that Assistant Public Defender Richard Elmore planned to argue that Quintanilla-Reyes, who drove off after the shooting, shot Baez in self-defense.
Investigators searched nearby camera systems, traced the Honda to an apartment complex on University Drive in Durham and arrested Quintanilla-Reyes on a first-degree murder charge.
Before jury selection was slated to start Monday morning, Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins heard final pretrial motions, including one that sought to prevent prosecutors from telling jurors that Quintanilla-Reyes was in the country illegally.
Elmore had successfully sought to have that information excluded. Before proceeding with jury selection, Elmore informed the court that Quintanilla-Reyes had declined a plea deal.
About the rejected plea deal
Quintanilla-Reyes turned down a deal in which he would have served between 16 and 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder, Elmore said. If a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder, he would automatically be sentenced to life in state prison.
On June 17, Quintanilla-Reyes was charged in federal court with possession of a firearm by someone in the country illegally. The charge is related to a Glock 23 that Quintanilla-Reyes allegedly used to shoot Baez, but Elmore said he expected another federal gun charge against his client for a .22 caliber rifle found in Quintanilla-Reyes’ apartment, as well as a charge related to him illegally re-entering the country after he had been deported once.
Each gun charge would carry a maximum sentence of 15 years. Federal officials agreed to allow Quintanilla-Reyes to serve a 32-year sentence for the three charges concurrently with his state conviction.
“Essentially, by going to trial on this, even if he’s found not guilty of anything, he’s most likely going to serve 32 years in federal prison,” Elmore said.
But Quintanilla-Reyes turned down the deal, Elmore said.
At that point, Elmore asked Quintanilla-Reyes to confirm that was his decision, and he appeared unsure.
Judge Collins then called for a recess until 2:30 p.m. to allow Elmore to speak with his client again.
“It’s very important, sir, that you talk to your lawyers right now,” Collins said.
When court resumed, Assistant District Attorney Tom Crosby said he planned to appeal Collins’ decision to not allow evidence about Quintanilla-Reyes’ immigration status. Collins then paused the Wake County court process to await a decision from the North Carolina Court of Appeals, which could take months or years.
What happened in the fatal I-40 shooting of Baez?
On March 7, 2025, around 6:21 a.m. Wake County officials received 911 calls about a truck hitting a guardrail on Interstate 40 between Aviation Parkway and North Harrison Avenue exit, search warrants state.
As first responders rushed to the scene, a witness approached a white Chevrolet Silverado and saw what appeared to be bullet holes and a man slumped over inside, according to search warrants executed in the case.
The man, later identified as Baez, was taken to a local hospital, where he died.
Baez’s family said he was the youngest of four brothers and left behind two children, a 12-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter, ABC11 reported.
In court Monday morning, Elmore said that Baez also had a gun in his truck. During a confrontation on the interstate, Quintanilla-Reyes had moved over on the highway to allow Baez to pass him. Instead, Baez pulled up next to Quintanilla-Reyes and pointed a gun at him, Elmore said.
It was then that Quintanilla-Reyes got his firearm out of the center console and fired, Elmore said.
Baez’s family disputed that account and said the witness’s video, which has been shared on social media, proves that it was murder.
“He rolled the window down and shot five times,” Baez’s father said after court on Monday afternoon.
Investigators searched Quintanilla-Reyes’ home and found the Glock 23 pistol with three magazines and the rifle with 42 rounds of ammunition, search warrants state.
Federal officials charge Quintanilla-Reyes
The federal complaint charging Quintanilla-Reyes with illegally owning a gun states that Quintanilla-Reyes, a Honduran native, admitted to federal officials that he had entered the U.S. illegally on a raft near Hidalgo, Texas, on May 14, 2014. He was deported two months later.
Federal officials again detained Quintanilla-Reyes in April 2018, in Texas, according to the complaint. Quintanilla-Reyes, who was traveling with his minor son, admitted he entered the U.S. illegally again, but there was no detention space for him and his son, The News & Observer previously reported.
Quintanilla-Reyes was released under a supervision order, but failed to report to federal officials in May 2019 and became an immigration fugitive, federal court documents state.
This story was originally published June 29, 2026 at 4:03 PM.
