GEORGETOWN, Del.- Defendant Yony Morales-Garcia, 24, has been charged with a double homicide and convicted on all 17 charges, in relation to a Georgetown shooting in 2022 at El Nopalito restaurant, said the Delaware Department of Justice.
 
Morales-Garcia will serve the rest of his life in prison after being convicted of:
  • Murder First Degree
  • Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony (seven counts)
  • Robbery First Degree
  • Carrying a Concealed Deadly Weapon
  • Wearing a Disguise During the Commission of a Felony
  • Conspiracy First Degree
  • Reckless Endangering First Degree (three counts)
  • Aggravated Menacing

The convictions follow an investigation into the killings of Armando Vincente Chilel Lopez and Honorio Velasquez at Georgetown’s El Nopalito restaurant in 2022.

The defendant’s brother and co-defendant, Emner Morales-Garcia, 23, was previously sentenced on Feb. 28 in Sussex County Superior Court for convictions of Robbery First Degree and Conspiracy Second Degree. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison, suspended after nine years for six years of probation.

On the evening of Jan. 22, 2022, the defendants entered Georgetown’s El Nopalito restaurant on DuPont Boulevard, wearing masks. Emner Morales-Garcia approached a bystander, Frank Garza, and stole the necklace he was wearing. As Emner fled the robbery, Yony received a gun and opened fire on two other bystanders, Armando Chilel Lopez and Honorio Velasquez. Lopez was treated at Nanticoke Hospital where he died of his wounds. Velasquez was declared dead at the scene.

Yony Morales-Garcia is currently scheduled for sentencing on July 12. He faces mandatory life sentences for his murder convictions.