Police on Tuesday arrested the last of three suspects authorities say were at the scene of the 2006 slaying of Robert Whiteside, a Mount Vernon bed and breakfast owner and former Dallas jeweler.
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Elbis Torres, 28, was taken into custody about 8 a.m. during a raid of his home in the 600 block of Phinney Avenue in Cockrell Hill. He faces a charge of capital murder.
Mount Vernon authorities and Cockrell Hill police waited for Mr. Torres' wife to leave the home before bursting in, arresting the suspect and whisking the couple's baby daughter to safety, Franklin County Sheriff Chuck White said.
"We've had a partial identification on this suspect for some time," Sheriff White said. "We had it solved relatively quickly, but we had this one person that was still walking around, and we weren't going to be satisfied until we had them all in custody."
Mark Aaron Rains, 23, confessed to pulling the trigger and leading a group of three in a botched robbery targeting Mr. Whiteside's jewelry workshop. He was sentenced to life in prison in July. Jose Ivan Chavez, 22, also faces a pending capital murder charge.
Mr. Whiteside, 56, a former jewelry maker in Dallas whose work was sometimes presented as gifts to heads of state during Ronald Reagan's presidency, was found shot to death Nov. 1, 2006, at the Veranda Bed & Breakfast outside Mount Vernon, about 100 miles east of Dallas.
Warren Butler, Mr. Whiteside's gay partner, was featured in a Dallas Morning News series in August about the case. He said he was relieved to hear of Mr. Torres' arrest.
"It's certainly going to help for me in the closure process with all of this," Mr. Butler said.
