Worker Guilty in Conspiracy to Murder Whistleblowing Co-worker

Brunswick, GA (WorkersCompensation.com) - The brother of a tree trimming company's supervisor was found guilty earlier this month for conspiring to kill a co-worker who exposed a multi-million labor scheme. 

According to the U.S. District Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, Juan Rangel-Rubio, 45, a Mexican citizen in the U.S. illegally, was found guilty in his role in the murder of Eliud Montoya in August 2017. U.S. Attorney for Southern District of Georgia David H. Estes said the charges carry a statutory minimum sentence of life in prison. 

Officials said Juan Rangel-Rubio worked for his brother, Pablo Rangel-Rubio, a supervisor at Wolf Tree, a contract company performing tree-cutting services on utility rights-of-way. Pablo Rangel-Rubio was also in the country illegally. Together, the two men conspired to hire illegals to work for the company. 

Officials said Pablo Rangel-Rubio hired more than 100 employees as part of the scheme. Officials further said Pablo would provide the employees with fake names and social security numbers to conceal their identities, then deposit the checks made out to those names into his checking account. To pay the workers, Pablo would pay them in cash, taking a portion of the proceeds for himself and Juan Rangel-Rubio. The scheme netted the two men more than $3.5 million, officials said. 

In 2017, Montoya was working for Wolf Tree, and saw that his co-workers were being mistreated. Montoya, a naturalized citizen, reported the scheme to Wolf Tree. Pablo Rangel-Rubio received a copy of the complaint and read it out loud to the other employees in Montoya's presence, officials said. On Aug. 17, 2017, Montoya reported the scheme to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

Once Pablo Rangel-Rubio found out Montoya had made the report to the federal agency, he conspired with his brother, Juan, to have Montoya killed. According to the indictment, the brothers surveilled Montoya to learn his schedule and then plotted to kill him in order to "prevent him from providing testimony and producing records or documents in an official proceeding conducted by the EEOC." 

Pablo paid another conspirator, Higinio Perez-Bravo, 52, of Savannah, to use his vehicle and serve as a get-away driver while Juan shot Montoya two days after he filed his EEOC complaint. 

Officials said Montoya was found unresponsive in the street outside of his home with gunshot wounds to his back. His mother, Avelina Alvares, said Montoya lived with his mother, wife and two children in the Savannah Pines Mobile Home Park and was the provider for the family. 

“He was the only supporter of the family. He sustained all of us. He supported all of us. I didn’t work and I was able to stop working and so did his wife," she told WJCL News in 2017.

After an investigation, authorities charged Juan Rangel-Rubio with conspiracy to retaliate against a witness; conspiracy to kill a witness; conspiracy to conceal, harbor and shield illegal aliens; and money laundering conspiracy. 

A federal jury found Juan Rangel-Rubio guilty on all charges on Nov. 1. 

“This jury verdict brings resounding resolution to any doubts about the culpability of these defendants in this horrific conspiracy to kill a man who threatened their illegal and lucrative labor-trafficking scheme,” U.S. Attorney Estes said in a statement. “We commend our law enforcement partners who solved this brutal murder and paved the way to holding these criminals accountable.” 

Pablo Rangel-Rubio pleaded guilty to a variety of charges including conspiracy to conceal, harbor and shield illegal aliens; conspiracy to commit money laundering; three counts of money laundering; and one count of aiding and abetting the retaliation against a witness in March of this year. Perez-Bravo also pleaded guilty in March. 

The three men will face sentencing later this month. Juan Rangel-Rubio faces life in prison, while his brother and Perez-Bravo face 50 years in prison. Estes said federal prison sentences do not offer the opportunity for parole. 

“This sentence means that criminals like these defendants will not escape justice and will no longer be able to victimize anyone,” said Special Agent in Charge Katrina W. Berger, who oversees Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) operations in Georgia and Alabama. “We are thankful for the hard work done by all of the agencies involved in this case and hope that the verdict brings comfort to the victims and their families.”

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