2 bodies, 4 suspects, 1 drug ring

The case started with the discovery of two bodies in a Sebring orange grove and ended with the dismantling of a drug ring and life sentences for the men charged with murder.

The Sebring Police Department received a letter this week from the Federal Attorney General of Mexico's regional attache's office in San Antonio, Texas, saying that Cesar Mayo Lynch's 60-year sentence that he appealed to a higher court was reduced to 50 years.

He was originally convicted and sentenced on Nov. 15, 2006, making him the last of four to face justice for the deaths of Omar and Jesus Sanchez, brothers from Wauchula, whose bodies were buried on Feb. 11, 1998, only to be discovered three months later.

"It's kind of unique because, you see, he's being tried in Mexico for a crime committed in the United States and you'll never see that in reverse," said John King, former resident agent in charge with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Sebring field office, who worked the case.

A call was placed to the regional attache's office in San Antonio seeking comment, but the response was they are not allowed to discuss cases.

A discovery

The case first began on May 12, 1998, when a federal task force arrested a man named Shawn Hendrick on drug charges, according to the probable cause affidavit.

"We had a confidential informant that brought the existence of the homicides to our attention," King said.

During interviews, it was learned Hendrick was involved in a drug smuggling ring run out of Sebring that dealt in heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine. He dealt primarily with a Sebring man named Louis Clemente and was once taken to an orange grove not far from Clemente's house, at the southeast corner of Arbuckle Creek Road and Highlands Avenue, to help get a truck out that had become stuck, according to the affidavit.

"While in the grove, Hendrick observed two 'fresh' graves near the stuck pickup, and blood dripping from the bumper of the truck to the ground," the affidavit stated.

Clemente reportedly told Hendrick he had "gunned two (expletives) down" on Feb. 11, 1998. He also showed Hendrick some blood stains on a wall inside his house and commented that his wife was upset because she had to clean up all the blood.

Eventually, the Hardee County Sheriff's Office was contacted and investigators learned that the wives of brothers Omar and Jesus Sanchez filed missing persons reports for them on Feb. 15.

The wives said the last time they had seen the brothers was Feb. 11, before leaving to visit a friend in Sebring, according to the affidavit.

On May 14, the graves were exhumed in the orange grove. After coming across carrion beetles, which are generally associated with stages of decomposition, and maggots, the bodies of the Sanchez brothers were found.

The investigation

Search warrants were served at Clemente's Pomegranate Avenue on May 14 and 15, 1998. Investigators took a door with a bullet hole in it, a spent .357 shell casing and blood samples. DNA tests revealed those samples belonged to the two victims, the affidavit stated.

When he was interviewed by investigators, Clemente reportedly said he was involved in a marijuana deal with the Sanchez brothers, where he was fronted 50 pounds of marijuana valued at $35,000.

In an apparent case of drug dealing deception, Clemente never received payment for the pot once he turned it over to someone else. He then couldn't pay off the Sanchez brothers.

"Because of the debt, Clemente stated that the Sanchez brothers were constantly harassing and threatening him, demanding their money," the affidavit stated.

Instead of paying back the money, Clemente hired his uncle, Hector Duran, and two other men - Jose Manuel Hernandez-Miranda and Lynch - to beat up the two victims.

Clemente called the Sanchez brothers in Wauchula and invited them to his house, saying he had someone there who wanted to get drugs from them, according to the affidavit.

After making the call, he left the home, only to come back later and find a lot of blood in the house.

"According to Clemente, the Sanchez brothers were nowhere to be found, and he was ultimately told by his uncle (Duran) and the two males that the Sanchez brothers had been killed and buried," the affidavit stated. "Clemente went on to say that he was told that the Sanchez brothers resisted during the beating, 'putting up a fight,' and were ultimately shot to death."

Justice served

In 2000, Clemente pleaded guilty to orchestrating the double murder, according to earlier Tampa Tribune reports. He received three life sentences.

Huran was sentenced in March of the same year to 14 years in prison for his role.

Three years later, Hernandez-Miranda also received three consecutive life sentences for murder with a firearm, racketeering and drug offenses.

The discovery of the bodies led to a multi-agency investigation, which included the Sebring Police Department, FDLE and the DEA, that saw the dismantling of the drug ring that stretched from Sebring to Dade City.

More than 30 people involved in the drug ring were charged. Clemente was listed as being at the top of that ring, according to the Tampa Tribune reports.