When police arrived, they found Juan staying at the house. It wasn’t long before they found Gary’s body in a bathtub in the home, covered in concrete, coffee grounds and several insects.
Now, Juan Tejedor Baron, 23, has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the killing. Baron was also charged with first-degree theft and identity theft in what the Honolulu Police Department says were Baron’s attempts to claim ownership of Ruby’s multimillion-dollar home and his Audi sedan following his death.
Baron was arrested last week in Anaheim, Calif., on a Greyhound bus headed for Mexico. Police discovered him hiding in a crawl space under a bench in the back of the bus, Honolulu police said in a news release. As of early Wednesday, Baron was being held without bail in Los Angeles County, according to jail records. Honolulu police said that his extradition back to Hawaii is pending. No attorney for Baron is listed in court records.
On March 7, police showed up there to perform a welfare check. They met Baron, who told them that he owned the house.
That was news to a community security guard who had accompanied police to the residence and knew that Ruby had bought the house in 2020, according to the affidavit. The guard told Baron that he needed to register his ownership at the community’s main office. Baron then tried to, according to the affidavit, emailing the office an unsigned and unnotarized deed from Ruby’s email address. On the registration forms, Baron also wrote down the number for a 24 Hour Fitness as his contact information.
During a search of the house the next day, investigators discovered Ruby’s body in the bathtub, according to the affidavit.
Baron was arrested March 9 by the U.S. Marshals Service and the Los Angeles Police Department.
The next day, Baron confessed to killing Ruby, according to the affidavit. The two men had been in a sexual relationship, and when Ruby told him that he was HIV-positive, Baron became angry, he reportedly told police.
Soon after, on an unspecified date, Baron noticed that Ruby had been choking on some food, so Baron placed a belt around Ruby’s neck and tightened it until Ruby lost consciousness, Baron told police, according to the affidavit. He then dragged Ruby to the bathtub and slit the man’s wrists using a kitchen knife “to stage a suicide,” the affidavit states.
Baron then filled the bathtub with concrete he had found in the garage, the affidavit states. When that wasn’t enough to cover Ruby, he went to Lowe’s to buy more. To hide the body’s smell, Baron said he covered the concrete in coffee grounds, according to the affidavit.
Baron also admitted to trying to claim ownership of Ruby’s home and his gold Audi A6, police say.
About a month before Baron was arrested, Kai Johnson met Baron on Tinder, Johnson told KGMB. Baron invited Johnson and other friends to Ruby’s home, claiming he was wealthy and worked as a financial adviser, Johnson said. One room was always locked, Johnson recalled, and he remembers Baron telling him, “You can’t go in it.”
Friends of Ruby told KHON that they doubted Baron’s story about Ruby having HIV. David Ellison, one of Ruby’s longtime friends, told the outlet that having HIV “would not have been something that he would have kept secret.”
Ellison said he had wanted to visit Ruby at his newly purchased home in Hawaii.
“We were just eager because … that really was his dream,” Ellison told the news station. “And we wanted to share in that dream with him, which adds to … our angst because we still wanted him to live out his days there.”