Abby Hoover
Managing Editor

A decade later, Martin Olmedo is in custody for the murder in 2012 of a 4-year-old child, Aydan Perea, in Northeast Kansas City.

Olmedo, 30, who was charged in this fatal shooting in 2013, was in the Jackson County Detention Center this week, after Federal Bureau of Investigation units in Kansas City, Texas and Mexico coordinated a pickup of Olmedo, after he was deported from Mexico.

Olmedo made an initial appearance in Jackson County court on Friday. He will appear on February 27 for a bond hearing.

According to court records recently unsealed, Olmedo faces Murder 2nd Degree, Unlawful Use of a Weapon and Armed Criminal Action charges.

According to court records, on December 15, 2012, officers responded to the 2400 block of Denver in Kansas City’s Northeast area and found four victims of a shooting in a car. One victim was a 4-year-old boy, Aydan Perea, who later died of a gunshot wound on his head.

Witnesses in the area described the suspect’s car as a two-door white or cream colored 1970-1980 Chevrolet Monte Carlo or Buick Regal with tinted windows, a light brown colored top, Dayton type wheels with spokes, and a gold lettered sticker in the back window.

The next day, officers located a vehicle near St. John and Drury registered to the defendant. After obtaining a search warrant, officers found spent shell casings like those found at the crime scene the day before.

One victim provided a statement that he had been in an ongoing feud with some men who lived on the same block. He indicated that these men were from a gang called “East Side.”

While conducting continued surveillance on the house the car was registered to on North Drury, the Gang Unit observed Olmedo exiting the address and getting into a car, which they stopped. He responded to police headquarters and agreed to speak with detectives. Detectives observed Olmedo to have the words “East Side” tattooed on his knuckles.

Olmedo told police detectives he was in the vehicle during the shooting the day before. A check of the defendant’s phone found it was hitting off a cell tower in the area of the shooting at the time it occurred.
Detectives obtained a Search Warrant for Olmedo’s residence. They found live rounds matching the ones used in the shooting in the living room couch.

On December 18, a witness told police that the defendant was overheard saying he was involved in the shooting, but that he was not the only shooter. The witness was with Olmedo when he received a text message saying he had “killed a boy.” Olmedo was then heard by the witness saying, “They’re going to think it was me when I wasn’t the only one shooting.”

An analysis by the Regional Crime Lab matched the spent .45 caliber shell casings recovered at the scene with the spent .45 caliber shell casings found in the suspect’s vehicle. They found the spent shell casings at the scene were fired from two different .45 caliber firearms, as well as the ones in the suspect vehicle.

“I am grateful for our law enforcement partners in the KCPD and the FBI for apprehending this defendant,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said. “We frequently remind families torn apart by a homicide that these cases are never out of our grasp because no statute of limitations exists on homicides. The apprehension of this defendant demonstrates that truth.”

The prosecutor’s office expressed its appreciation to the FBI Kansas City, FBI Houston and FBI LEGAT Mexico City.

“We have spoken to the mother, who waited so very long for this day to arrive,” Peters Baker said. “For her and other family members and for my community, we will tirelessly work to bring this case to a just conclusion for little Aydan.”

As this is a pending criminal case, Baker will not make further comment. Olmedo is in custody under a $500,000 cash bond.