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A jury has found the suspect in a 2024 killing in Roanoke guilty of second-degree murder and using a firearm in the commission of murder, according to the Roanoke City Commonwealth's Attorney's Office.
The verdict against Juan Quontell Welton, 34, followed a two-day trial in Roanoke City Circuit Court on Oct. 6 and 7. Welton will be sentenced Jan. 12, 2027. Evidence at trial established that on Dec. 4, 2024, at approximately 6:50 p.m., Roanoke Police officers responded to a report of a person with a gunshot wound at Affordable Corporate Suites in the 4800 block of Lanford St. NW, where officers found Rafael Perez-Naranjo unresponsive outside a room. He was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m., and an autopsy determined that a bullet entered his shoulder and passed through his heart.
Police and detectives collected physical evidence, obtained search warrants, reviewed hours of surveillance footage and examined phone records, identifying two suspects: Welton and Johanna Lee Felts, both indicted on murder charges in January 2025. Felts cooperated with law enforcement and prosecutors and helped locate the pistol used in the homicide, which had been buried in the woods near the apartment she shared with Welton. She testified that in December 2024 she was working as a prostitute and had arranged to meet her client, Naranjo, and that Welton accompanied her, confronted Naranjo and shot him.
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