Gloria Cordova was arrested during Ramon Preciado’s bond hearing. (KENS screenshot), Matthew Guerra and Savanah Nicole Soto (SAPD)
The mother of Savanah Nicole Soto — the 18-year-old pregnant teen who went missing the day before she was scheduled to be induced only to be found murdered in a car alongside her boyfriend — was arrested this week while watching a bond hearing for one of the people charged in connection to the teen’s murder.
Gloria Ann Cordova was taken into custody on Monday and charged with one count of failure to stop and give information over $2, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
“Yesterday afternoon, deputies placed into custody Gloria Ann Cordova, 52, on an active warrant for failure to stop and give info, a class b misdemeanor,” Deputy Johnny C. Garcia with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office wrote in an email to Law&Crime Tuesday morning. “Cordova remains behind bars with a $1,400.00 bond. The warrant stems from a 2023 case filed with the San Antonio Police Department.”
Public court records show that the case against Cordova was first opened on Aug. 19, 2023, several months before her daughter and 22-year-old Matthew Guerra were executed.
Deputies quietly placed Cordova under arrest during a break in the bond hearing for 53-year-old Ramon Preciado. Footage from inside the courtroom posted by SanAntonio CBS affiliate KENS showed Cordova sitting in the gallery wearing a pink T-shirt and jeans as at least three sheriff’s deputies entered and escorted her out of the courtroom through a side door.
Ramon Preciado is accused of helping his son, 19-year-old Christopher Preciado, hide Soto and Guerra’s bodies after the younger Preciado shot them both in the head. Ramon Preciado is charged with abuse of a corpse and altering, destroying or concealing a corpse. His son is charged with capital murder of multiple persons, which includes Soto, Guerra, and their unborn child.
Ramon Preciado’s wife, 47-year-old Myrta Romanos, was also arrested in connection with the slayings and faces charges of abuse of a corpse, tampering with evidence with intent to impair an investigation and altering, destroying or concealing a corpse. She is being held on $600,000 bond.
During the hearing when Cordova was arrested, a judge ordered Ramon Preciado’s bond be cut from $600,000 to $450,000.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, the murders were the result of a botched drug deal wherein Guerra was allegedly supposed to sell marijuana to Christopher Preciado. It was not immediately clear whether Christopher Preciado knew Soto or Guerra before that midnight Dec. 21 meeting.
Guerra’s family allegedly confirmed to police that he sold drugs, typically posting pictures of his illegal products on social media.
“It was stated that people wanted to rob the boyfriend, and it was stated that he had been shot at before,” police wrote in the affidavit.
In an interview with police, Christopher Preciado allegedly said that Soto and Guerra drove to his home to sell him marijuana. However, Christopher Preciado claimed that when they arrived, Guerra pulled a gun on him. Christopher Preciado allegedly told police that he and Guerra were wrestling over the firearm when Christopher Preciado somehow “manipulated the gun in such a manner as to shoot both of the victims in the head.”
But police wrote that the suspect’s story “was inconsistent with the evidence collected at the scene and from the victim’s vehicle.”
The affidavit also noted that Soto had been placed in the front passenger seat of the vehicle while Guerra’s body had been put in the back seat.
Following his arrest last month, Ramon Preciado was being escorted to a law enforcement vehicle when he responded to a reporter’s question about whether he regretted his role in Soto and Guerra’s deaths by denying having any involvement.
“Aren’t you sorry for lying about what you’re saying? You don’t even know what’s going on,” he said. “You just make stuff up like always.”
Christopher Preciado remained silent during his perp walk.
Soto was last seen alive on Dec. 21 at the apartment complex where she and Guerra both lived. She had been scheduled to go to the hospital the following evening with her mother to be induced but never made it to the appointment. Her family then reported her missing.
Soto and Guerra’s bodies were found in the vehicle in the 5900 block of Danny Kaye Drive on Dec. 26, with police saying that the car appeared to have been at that location for several days.
The Bexar County medical examiner determined that the manner of death for both victims was homicide, and the cause of death for both was a gunshot wound to the head.
Police said they still believe the victims were killed at a different location before being dumped in the car and left where they were later found.
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