The Antelope Valley Times

Your community. Your issues. Your news.

2 suspects arrested in Mojave robbery-homicide [updated]

by •

MOJAVE – Authorities arrested a transient couple in connection with a robbery attempt that turned into a fatal shooting at a gas station in Mojave Sunday night.

Dante John Strong, 20, and Blu Jazmin Tuch, 21, were arrested shortly after the incident, which occurred around 7:37 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27, at the Fastrip, located at Highway 58 and Highway 14 in Mojave, according to a news release from the Kern County Sheriff’s Office.

“It appears at this point, the suspects and victims met each other in the parking lot to the rear of Fastrip when Strong pulled out a gun and shot both victims in a possible robbery attempt. The surviving victim briefly chased the suspects on foot, but Strong and Tuch were able to get into their vehicle and flee,” the news release states.

As Kern County Sheriff’s deputies were responding to the incident, they saw the suspect vehicle fleeing the scene, according to the news release.

“Deputies stopped the vehicle and a gun was thrown out of the window,” the news release states.

Strong and Tuch were booked at the Kern County Jail on suspicion of murder, attempted murder, robbery, conspiracy and aggravated mayhem. Both are due in court Wednesday, according to Kern County inmate records.

One victim was pronounced dead at the scene and the other surviving victim suffered “moderate to major injuries,” according to the news release.

The deceased victim’s name has not yet been released.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact the Kern County Sheriff’s Office at 661-861-3110 or Secret Witness at 661-322-4040.

UPDATED: The deceased has been identified as 20-year-old Raymond Angel Luna Martinez of Lancaster, according to the Kern County Coroner’s Office.

Filed Under: Crime/ Safety

61 comments for "2 suspects arrested in Mojave robbery-homicide [updated]"

  1. Well we should judge anyone ? Let’s pray for both side of families , the reason why because really think about it both side of the family are suffering and homeless people we need to help them as well there are good ppl put yourself in there shoes for maybe day

  2. Bunch of j-faces! Only low life’s rob someone they know. Regardless of what it was (herb, wtf seriously? Not a drug in my book ) the sack chasing chick set it up, u ain’t shyt bih. Who sets up someone they cool with. Raymond didn’t deserve to die, who has something bad to say about that kid? Lmk cause ain’t no one said it was about bad business. They took a son from his family, they took that familys future generations. And the boy that did it was a kid. So lucky for him even if he gets 20-30 years he still will have time to get out and have his own family because he is still a child. And you feel bad for the murderers family? Maybe they should have raised him better.

  3. People from Palmdale or Lancaster only go to Mojave for two reasons. 1 To buy a F150 or 2. To sell drugs too truckers. There aint crap out there that the Av dont have.

      • Sometimes I forget what Lancaster was like when I was a kid, and wonder why I hated it. When that happens I go to Mojave.

        • Lancaster is even worse now. At least back in the day, we had people like Barbara Little in charge. Now we have sleazy Parris. Yuk.

    • The Fastrip in Rosamond has cheaper gas then the rest of AV due to lower Kern County gas taxes. So there’s that.

      • If I was buying a couple hundred gallons at a time that would make it worth the gas I’d burn getting there and back.

  4. All this is sad and tragic. However, Raymond tried selling drugs to my son when they played soccer in AYSO. The father was the Coach. I honestly don’t know who is worse: a drug addict who kills for their addiction or a drug dealer who destroys young lives, communities for money.

    • of course you wouldn’t use your real name when leaving such a heartless remark. Coward hiding behind a keyboard.

  6. No one knows what happened at the location. Only the attackers and the victims. But that does not give the attackers permission to open fire on another human being! Are out of your mind? Let me guess, the attackers where good people and getting ready to start something good for the community.

  7. I love how everyone thinks they know the full story. Tuch had posted on her facebook asking if anyone had some “white girl” which is another name for cocaine. Raymond and his father replied to the status and pm’d Tuch to meet up and exchange. It was a drug deal gone bad. Neither Tuch nor strong were transients. Their personal lives wouldn’t be any of your business anyways. It’s sad for everyone how this situation happened. It’s never right to shoot and kill someone, but also the martinez’s should not have been selling drugs. Period. Everyone needs to stop bashing the family members of Tuch and Strong. They are not responsible for what THEY do, they are grown [removed] adults who knew what the [removed] they were doing. RIP raymond, may your family find peace. And also, to the Tuch and Strong families, may you all find peace with this as well. Stay strong and keep pushing forward.

    • And how would you know who is PMing who? Sounds like you are friends with these pieces of (removed) and just want to bad mouth the victims. Have a little compassion this family just lost someone who they love very much and the other is in ICU. No one needs you to play detective on a website or try to exonerate some trash who have no regard for human life. I haven’t seen anyone say anything about either of the murderers family, they alone are responsible for their actions and deserve to spend the rest of their pathetic lives in misery.

    • You all need to stop speculating as you were not there and don’t know what happened. There is a family hurting in this situation as they lost there son. You all need to grow the hell up and have some dam respect.

    • They were asking if anyone had any ON FACEBOOK? That has to be one of the stupidest things that I have ever heard. I would hope that these folks weren’t THAT stupid. But then again ….

  9. So what’s that mean? 7-8 years in prison (if that) and do it again? They’ll be back here in a flash.

    California government jeopardizes our safety and security, and taxes us unmercifully to fund it. Good job voters, lol.

    • You could leave. I hear Texas, with their no regulation no taxes freewheeling approach has built some well planned cities that you might like.

      • LOL. Good, well-thought out reply, Timmy. “If you don’t like it leave”. Don’t acknowledge the problem and develop solutions. The AV is all screwed up so stop whining and leave, lol. Eventually, you’ll run out of places to hide and the entire country would be like AV.

        What a contrarian jerk! You act like an eleven-year-old. Nanny-nanny. You must be the editor of this politically-correct this rag. Get a life, creep.

        • Thing is, you aren’t talking about problems, so trying to solve them is a waste of time. You are whining about things that you are imagining as problems. The reality is that the AV is NOT “all screwed up.” It can be improved (particularly Lancaster), but by and large it’s a pretty typical place to live.

          On the other hand, there are certainly places, as I mentioned, that would do very well to be a lot more like the AV. If Houston was governed like Palmdale, and Texas was governed like California, maybe the rest of the country wouldn’t be staring down the barrel of a hundred and fifty billion dollar disaster relief fund.

        • “If you don’t like it leave” is the only practical solution, because you aren’t talking about actual problems. You are whining about issues where the happy majority won’t just let you have your way.

          • What was this bit of babble referring to “alex”? Correcting spelling is seldom worth doing. I do point out the similarity in misuse of English when it appears across a variety of usernames.

        • Completely agree! It is Tim’s calling to be a contrarian jerk. Of course he gives himself permission to trash the elected officials of Palmdale, and chooses not to leave. He has no solutions so he pulls out of his memory bank “if you don’t like it leave.” Been doing this for years, instead of becoming part of any solution.

          • “…becoming part of the solution.”???? Like yourself, alex? You don’t contribute anything to this site yet you love to complain about other’s posts.

            Carry on. You can’t help yourself.

      • Speaking of Texas.

        Houston is notorious for little or no zoning regulations.

        The oil companies have done very well there.

        Texas has threatened succession in the past.

        Now, it wants federal $$$$s bail out Houston.

        Why should we taxpayers in California have to help bail out a city in Texas that didn’t build itself out with strict regulations given the likelihood of hurricanes?

        Plus, trump and the gop want to cut taxes on large corporations. Who is going to pay for rebuilding Houston?

        I say let the oil companies pay a large share of the costs since they’ve benefitted from oil in the ground there and few regulations.

        When Hurrincane Sandy devasted New York and New Jersey, the Texas representatives in Congress were stingy will federal assistance. Them there republicans aren’t fit to govern. They couldn’t supervise an ant farm.

        Why don’t republicans in California who are always complaining about their tax dollars never complain about California subsidizing those red states that depend so much on federal assistance? I’ll admit to already knowing the answer to my question.

      • I am from Tx Don’ t mess with Tx in fact in you can carry gun in Tx laws are stricter then any other states there are no homeless people that for dam sure and ppl help one other there

        • No homeless in Texas huh? Guess that is why there is a THN.org, lots of resources for the homeless on the Texas HUD page, and according to one site 7 out of every 10,000 people in Texas are homeless.
          Honest, the internet is a tool for research… try it sometime.

        • The state of Texas is a joke and a disgrace! They can’t even take care of their people after a hurricane, have no environmental laws in place and rely on the federal government (aka “the other states”) to take care of them because they don’t feel like being responsible. Yet, these are the same people (texas) who said they wanted to become their own “nation” and separate from the Union….LOL! Please!

  10. This article is insane, not once do you say the victim was with his Father when he got murdered. Not once to you mention the GoFund me for the Martinez family. Not once do you even tell the story and how the father is still currently in ICU after being shot as well. All you mentioned were the low life’s that took my Nephews life. Raymond was a great young man. He was a dedicated body builder starting his own company and a veterinarian technician. His whole family was very dedicated to the community. Ricky was a volunteer couch for AYSO for many years. They were an amazing family and for some of you commenters to just say things out of spite when you weren’t there you don’t know the victim or anything is insane. God forbid you ever go threw something like this and have people like you say the worst things about your blood that they never even met.

    Though it seems like the AV Times wont tell you anything about it this is the link to The Martinez’s Family’s GoFund me https://www.gofundme.com/angelinamartinezfamily

    • One of the 2 isn’t low life so get that [removed] straight! Never cool that a life was taken.. but not every side is blue and sweet! EVERYONE HAS DEMONS !!

      • They are both low life disgusting poor excuses of human beings. That’s how it works when you take part in something so terrible. He and his father did not deserve what they did.

  11. I think it’s crazy how everyone has something to say when not ONE of MF know what happened because NONE of you were their !! Smfh get a life and worry about it and no one else’s !!! What if the other people were trying to rob them and well I’mma defend myself would you?? Exactly. Like I said no one knows what happened because they were not there

    • Shut up [removed]. I know Raymond he’s not like that so shut [removed]!!!! Before I [removed] outta you.

  12. This is horrible!! If anyone has Blu on their friends list, you can see she posted asking if “anyone has any white girl (coke) or weed for sale” at 7:24pm on the 27th. They were friends with the victim and met them there. So it was either a drug deal gone bad or just very coincidental.

    • Or maybe they were all pieces of garbage.. where did a “transient” get a gun? Perhaps society is better without all 3 of them…

      • Just want to play with this a second…
        where did a “transient” get a gun?
        Well perhaps the “transient ” had a home at one time. While living in that home they registered to purchase a gun and then purchased said gun. Then lost their home.

        More likely it was purchased illegally from another criminal, of course.
        Or perhaps it was lifted from another victim during a robbery or burglary.
        Maybe they have mad skills and made one!

      • The victim wasn’t a low life. The only lowlifes in this were the two suspects that thought they had a right to someone else’s property that they worked hard for.

    • A Compationate Friend,

      Please community let’s not make comments like this because there is a lot of people hurting. If the girl posted on FB at about the time the incident happened, maybe they need it to get money to go buy the drugs and they got across this two father and son. And tried to get money from them. Why do they had to be making the deal so quick. We all know that they live in Lancaster unless they fly a helicopter that they will make it to Mojave in less than 10 mts. Please don’t make comments like this. The family is already hurting and we are not helping with our negative comments. Nobody knows what happened. Raymond was not into drugs he was a very good young man. He is dead and deserves respect. Unless you know something for fact than you can say it. Some time is not just the weapons that kill people, is our words and things that we said that kill peoples heard. Please stop and say a prayer for this Family that know suffers. Today is them and only God knows who will be next. It could be one of us. Let’s be Companionate.

    • or they went and robbed and killed innocent people to get the money for their nasty ass habits. Gosh some people have no critical thinking skills

    • They weren’t even friends on Facebook. Blu sold things on Facebook for sale site (probably stolen) like a dell computer. Probably a scam to meet and steal money. Because low life’s don’t know how to work to earn their keep. Think their entitled because life was hard for them. How about you all get a job and not kill for something you didn’t earn.

  13. I’m curious…where did you get your information that they were a “transient couple” ??
    Considering they both LIVE in Lancaster and quite a few people have mentioned they they new the female !!! Come on people get your stories correct before posting them….Check the Facebook pages of the two that have been arrested…….

    • More than likely they were listed as transient because they had no permanent address because they are pieces of [removed] that were freeloaders and had already burned anyone who had tried to help them

  14. They were not transient, they went to rosamond high lived in the county for years. The shooter knew the victim they were friends… condolences to the Martinez family.

    • They are low lifes with no jobs and education what so ever they like taking what’s not there’s punks should pay the price they can’t think everything is free to them. Like no get get a job u damb low life lazy punks I hate people like them .they should rot in jail like the rats they are.

    • They did not go to Rosamond high so you’re wrong try again….. It was an obvious drug deal gone bad check up on the victims background maybe enlighten you a little

    • @ anon… so why don’t you go to the sheriff’s dept and set the record straight about their addresses? SMDH, like that is important! And did it occur to you that maybe the AV times didn’t have the info? Think before you speak, cuz you sound stupid