Latin Singer, 22, Murdered in Ambush Robbery May Have Been Set Up by Her Friends

Less than one month after Latin musician Maria De La Rosa was shot and killed in an “ambush-style” robbery in Los Angeles on November 22, tragic new details are coming to light.

As the National Enquirer previously reported, the singer (known professionally as DELAROSA) was sitting in a car when she was fatally wounded. Francisco Otilio Gaytan, 27, Benny LiconGomez, 27, and Eduardo Lopez, 21, all of Northridge, California, were each charged in connection to the murder.

According to a search warrant affidavit written by Los Angeles Police Department detective Siranush Simonyan and reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, two of the people charged in the case claimed they were her friend. The publication reported that there were also two alleged gunmen involved (one of them has not yet been named by the County of Los Angeles, and his whereabouts are unclear).

Gaytan told police he’d known the singer since they were teenagers, Simonyan wrote in the affidavit, per the Times.

He said that LiconGomez — who allegedly said he was “childhood friends” with De La Rosa — was going to meet the singer for a “drug buy,” but the plan was to rob her, according to the affidavit.

Gaytan claimed he had no part in the robbery, but Simonyan said she found text messages in his phone to Lopez (one of the alleged gunmen). One apparently said, “Go get ski mask.”

When LiconGomez spoke to police, he claimed he had nothing to do with the shooting. However, according to Simonyan, surveillance video showed him speaking with Lopez and the second suspected gunman before De La Rosa arrived at the scene.

After the shooting, Lopez and the other man eventually got into Gaytan’s car, Simonyan wrote, but Lopez dropped a court document with his name on it as he was getting in.

According to the affidavit, Gaytan allegedly argued with the two men in the car and could be heard on surveillance cameras saying what sounded like, “What you fools did — I told you what to make it look like.”

The alleged shooters got out of Gaytan’s car and into another, and it’s believed that they fled to Mexico, per Simonyan. “We good they left to tj,” LiconGomez allegedly wrote in a text to Gaytan.

In the County of Los Angeles’ November 26 press release, authorities said a warrant was issued for Lopez’s arrest. It’s unclear if he’s currently in custody.

Per the Times, Gaytan and LiconGomez have yet to enter pleas. Each was charged with one felony count of murder and two felony counts of attempted second-degree robbery.