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🇪🇨 Ecuador /Crime & Justice

Guatemalan man sentenced to 21 years for killing Ecuadorian taxi driver in US

From El Comercio · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Sources not specified Outcome reported
  • Santos Paulino Vásquez Ramírez, a Guatemalan national, was sentenced to 21 years in prison in Putnam, New York, for the murder of an Ecuadorian taxi driver.
  • The victim, Aurelio Zhunio Orbez, was found dead in December 2025, and Vásquez Ramírez was identified as the suspect after strangling the driver over a fare dispute.
  • Vásquez Ramírez was an undocumented immigrant with a prior deportation order.

A Guatemalan man has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for the murder of an Ecuadorian taxi driver in Putnam, New York. Santos Paulino Vásquez Ramírez received the sentence on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, according to authorities.

The victim, identified as 66-year-old Aurelio Zhunio Orbez, an Ecuadorian immigrant from Jima, Sígsig, Azuay, was found deceased on December 7, 2025. His body was discovered floating in the Croton Falls reservoir. Following the discovery, the perpetrator drove the taxi to the Purdys Metro-North station and abandoned the vehicle.

Authorities identified Vásquez Ramírez as the suspect in the homicide and robbery. He had strangled the taxi driver on December 1, 2025, following a dispute over the fare. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an arrest warrant for Vásquez Ramírez on December 20, 2025, identifying him as an undocumented immigrant.

Records indicate that Vásquez Ramírez entered the United States illegally in October 2013. An immigration judge had issued a final deportation order against him on January 22, 2016. "Santos Vásquez Ramírez should never have been in our country and given the opportunity to take the life of Aurelio Zhunio Orbez," stated Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin at the time.

About this summary

Originally published by El Comercio in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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