A Johnson County jury has convicted a man of capital murder in a November 2021 double homicide in Olathe.
After a six-day trial, Axel Arellanes-Vara was found guilty of capital murder on Wednesday, September 9.
Two other men charged in the killings had previously reached plea agreements with prosecutors. Arellanes-Vara was the only person to go to a trial in connection to the case.
The conviction follows the shooting deaths of 45-year-old Angela Santiago and 42-year-old Jose Arellano-Rascon, both of Tonganoxie, Kansas.
On November 20, 2021, around 1:25 a.m., Olathe police were called to investigate possible gunfire heard in the 1000 block of East Fredrickson Drive.
Arriving officers found Santiago and Arellano-Rascon shot to death inside their vehicle, which was still running and in drive.
The suspects were described as four to five men in a dark colored pickup truck.
An investigation led police to arrest three men in September 2022: Axel Arellanes-Vara, Salvador Garcia-Zarate, and Jesus Enrique Cereceda-Soto.
All three were charged with capital murder.
In June of 2023, Cereceda-Soto pleaded guilty to premeditated first-degree murder in the case and was sentenced to 330 months, or 27.5 years, in prison.
Two years later, in July of 2025, Garcia-Zarate pleaded guilty to two counts of intentional second-degree murder and was sentenced to 330 months, or 27.5 years, in prison.
Arellanes-Vara’s sentencing is scheduled for November 3, 2026.
