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Murder suspect pleads not guilty in Ruch-area killing By Nick Morgan Updated: Dec 05, 2022 04:18 PM A A Jose Alfredo Sotelo-Palma appears via video Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court on murder charges. [Jamie Lusch / Mail Tribune] A Mexican national pleaded not guilty Monday to a string of charges accusing him of killing a man at a Ruch area marijuana grow and menacing two others on the property with weapons described as “a handgun and/or an AR-style rifle.” Jose Alfredo Sotelo-Palma, 38, of Sinaloa, Mexico, said little during his initial appearance Monday in Jackson County Circuit Court accusing him in the shooting death of 31-year-old Luis A. Ayala-Zavala Nov. 28 outside Jacksonville city limits. With the help of a Spanish language interpreter who appeared by phone, Sotelo-Palma accepted the help of a court-appointed defense lawyer and corrected the spelling of his name in a Jackson County District Attorney’s Office filing during the hearing, but otherwise sat quietly during the video arraignment and clutched his upper arms during the video arraignment from the Jackson County Jail. Sotelo-Palma pleaded not guilty to one count of second-degree murder, three counts of unlawful use of a weapon and two counts of menacing accusing him in Ayala-Zavala’s death, of using firearms described as “a handgun and/or an AR style rifle” against Ayala-Zavala and two other named individuals on the property, one male and another female. Jail and court records showed him as incorrectly listed with the name “Satelo-Palma” despite being correctly named by the sheriff’s office Friday afternoon — when he was first identified as the suspect in the homicide reported to dispatchers at 7:24 p.m. Nov. 28 in the 2300 block of Little Applegate Road, according to earlier news reports. Sotelo-Palma was captured shortly after 8:30 p.m. Friday in the 2900 block of Eastside Road, some 4 miles from the scene of the homicide, and has since been held in jail. At the hearing Monday, Deputy District Attorney Ben Lull, who is prosecuting Ayala-Zavala’s homicide, asked that Sotelo-Palma be held in jail without bail, without early release under any circumstance and that Sotelo-Palma be ordered not to contact any of the named victims. Judge Pro Tem Paul Moser agreed and scheduled a pretrial hearing for Jan. 9. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office alleged last week that Sotelo-Palma had an association with a Mexican drug cartel. Police have not stated whether they believe the murder victim had ties to a Mexican drug cartel, but Circuit Court records show Ayala-Zavala was scheduled to stand trial next month on charges of manufacturing cocaine, felony possessing cocaine, first-degree theft and misdemeanor unlawfully possessing a firearm. The charge stems from a Jan. 31, 2021, traffic stop in which Ayala-Zavala was seen leaving the Valli Hai Motel in downtown Medford. Police allegedly seized a stolen firearm and user quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine during the 11 p.m. traffic stop, according to an affidavit filed by Medford police in the case. A warrant has been out for co-defendant Jose Rene Veloz Zamora’s arrest since August of last year. Zamora is not listed among the victims in Sotelo-Palma’s homicide case. Reach web editor Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @MTwebeditor.