1 to trial, 1 convicted in '08 homicide

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Of the two men arrested in a homicide case from 2008, one will begin trial Tuesday and the other has been convicted.

The Grand Rapids Police Department arrested Mike Torres-Zuniga and Jeremy Lopez in February, about 14 months after the crime.

Abelino Jeronimo Ramos, 17, was shot to death Nov. 21, 2008 in the driveway of a home in the 600 block of Shamrock Street SW. Witnesses said they heard an argument just before gunfire erupted around 2 a.m.

Two men were seen leaving the scene in a car.

Then, on April 9, 2009, a teenager crashed his car into a telephone pole on Clyde Park Avenue near Grandville Avenue in Wyoming. The 16-year-old called police to report the accident, then called back and confessed to the murder.

The teen was taken to a juvenile detention center. No formal charges were ever issued against the teen related to the homicide.

Warrants were then filed in February for 18-year-old Torres-Zuniga and 21-year-old Lopez in connection with Ramos' death. Both suspects were already in the Kent County Correctional Facility on other charges.

Torres-Zuniga faces charges of open murder, felony murder and being a habitual offender. His trial begins Tuesday in Kent County Circuit Court.

Lopez was convicted about one week before Torres-Zuniga's trial.