A man nicknamed "Godfather" was jailed over the weekend for his alleged role in what Gwinnett authorities believe was an international attempt to bribe a woman his nephew is accused of raping.
Ezequiel Torrijos was booked into the Gwinnett County jail early Sunday morning, just over two weeks after he, the alleged rapist and a second nephew — an attorney in Mexico — were indicted in the case. Torrijos, an Indiana resident, was not previously named because he was not yet in custody.
Authorities believe Daniel Torrijos raped a pregnant Duluth woman on June 17, 2007, but he was not charged until 2014, when a new DNA match tied him to the crime. In August, the alleged victim started receiving phone calls from her alleged assailant’s relatives — Ezequiel Torrijos and Hernan Torrijos-Carapia, the Mexican lawyer.
They initially offered the alleged victim $20,000 to change her story about the attack, Porter said. Later, they offered $30,000.
The alleged victim reached out to police and the office of Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter, which started monitoring the woman’s calls and the jailhouse communications of Daniel Torrijos.
“Their conversations were pretty clear that they were going to pay her money to change her story about what happened, and tell authorities that she had been in a consensual relationship with Daniel,” Porter told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month.
Not confident they’d be able to extradite Torrijos-Carapia on an influencing a witness charge, authorities devised a plan to lure him to Georgia.
Torrijos-Carapia reportedly offered to wire the money but, under the guidance of authorities, the alleged victim told him she wanted cash. Torrijos-Carapia flew to the United States on Sept. 13 and visited a girlfriend in Chicago before making his way to Gwinnett, Porter said.
After a few last-minute changes and a little scrambling, Torrijos-Carapia was set up to meet a “cousin” of the victim at the Mall of Georgia on Sept. 15. He met authorities instead, and later made a statement that was “essentially an admission” of guilt, Porter said.
The day after Torrijos-Carapia was taken into custody, a Gwinnett grand jury indicted him, Daniel Torrijos and Ezequiel Torrijos on single counts of influencing a witness, a felony. Daniel Torrijos was also indicted on charges stemming from the original rape.
All three are being held without bond.
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