SANTO DOMINGO – In a recent and explosive appearance on the program Esto No es Radio Show, investigative journalist Ramón Tolentino denounced what he describes as an unacceptable failure of the Dominican justice system: the release of Yorky Antonio Pérez Rodríguez, a man who had been a fugitive since 2024 for the murder of Felipe Algenis Linares.
According to Tolentino’s account, the accused was captured on May 3, 2026, during a police operation in the Los Ríos sector. Despite attempting to deceive the authorities by using a fake ID, he was identified through facial recognition, confirming that there was an outstanding arrest warrant for homicide against him.
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The controversy lies in the fact that Pérez Rodríguez was facing two separate proceedings: one for illegal possession of a firearm (a flagrant offense at the time of his arrest) and the pending case for the homicide of Linares that occurred in December 2024. As explained by lawyer and panelist José Martínez Brito, the prosecutor in charge, Samantha Maldonado, decided to process the firearm case first.
However, after paying a bail of 200,000 pesos for the charge of carrying a weapon, the accused was released on parole on Tuesday, May 12, just one day before the scheduled hearing to determine the coercive measure for the murder.
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“The Dominican justice system, due to a Dominican error, releases a confessed murderer,” Tolentino stated with indignation during the broadcast. The journalist highlighted that, when the victim’s relatives arrived at the court on Wednesday the 13th, they were met with the bitter surprise that the inmate was no longer in custody.
Questioning the Public Ministry
Both Tolentino and Martínez Brito pointed out that this outcome suggests a serious lack of coordination or, in the worst case, influence peddling. Brito stressed that the Public Prosecutor’s Office is the guarantor of imprisonment and that the computer system should have alerted about the pending arrest warrant for homicide before granting release for the weapon bail.
“How is it that I am given a little piece of paper, that a Yorky is let loose?… this is serious, Brito,” questioned Tolentino when referring to the alleged “apostille” or note that the prosecutor’s office claimed to have left in the file to prevent the release, which was apparently ignored.
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Tolentino calls for surrender
Faced with the negligence that allowed the accused to return to hiding, Ramón Tolentino made a public appeal to the fugitive:
Brother, surrender sir, surrender by the best means necessary.
For their part, the relatives of Felipe Algenis Linares, represented by his mother Xiomara Linares Cabral, cry out for justice while the authorities are questioned for allowing an individual considered “a danger to society” to once again evade the legal system.
