Third arrest made in Chevy Chase murder case

WASHINGTON - There has been a third arrest in the murders of Michael and Virginia Spevak, the couple who was tied-up and beaten to death in their D.C. home in Chevy Chase last November.

The third suspect, Jose Portillo, was arrested over the weekend. He'll make his first appearance in D.C. Superior Court Monday afternoon.

Piero Fuentes Hernandez of Capitol Heights pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder earlier this year. His girlfriend, Angela Hernandez, still faces trial for murder.

Prosecutors have said the murders began as a burglary. Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah Sines said during the break-in and after the Spevaks were tied up, it was Angela Hernandez who told Fuentes Hernandez and possibly Portillo that the couple had recognized her and they had to be killed.

Angela Hernandez had been a friend of one of the couple's foster children.

As Fuentes Hernandez beat the couple with a metal baton, Angela Hernandez went into the kitchen, grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed the Spevaks, Sines said.

Prosecutors allege Fuentes Hernandez and Angela Hernandez returned to the Spevaks' home the next day, looked in the windows and stole the couple's Toyota Scion. They then picked up the third suspect and drove to New York. Along the way, the Scion would be caught on camera after the trio drove through an EZ-Pass lane without paying.

The car would later be set on fire by Fuentes Hernandez not far from where Angela Hernandez was living.

Portillo's family tells WTOP that the other two suspects are trying to frame him. His family says they don't harbor criminals, and would have thrown him out had they suspected anything.

(Copyright 2009 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)