Rafael Perez Naranjo

On the evening of December 4, 2024, a call about a shooting brought Roanoke police to the Affordable Corporate Suites in the 4800 block of Lanford Street NW. Officers arrived around 6:50 p.m. to find Rafael Perez Naranjo, a 32-year-old Latino man, unresponsive outside one of the rooms. He had been shot, and his injuries were fatal; he was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:01 p.m. An autopsy later determined that a single bullet had entered his shoulder and passed through his heart.

Detectives began an intensive investigation, collecting physical evidence, obtaining search warrants, and reviewing hours of surveillance footage and phone records. The evidence pointed them toward two suspects: Juan Quontell Welton and his girlfriend, Joanna Lee Felts. In January 2025, both were indicted on murder charges in connection with Perez Naranjo’s death.

While the cases were pending, Joanna Felts chose to cooperate with law enforcement. She led investigators to the pistol used in the shooting, which she and Welton had buried in the woods near their apartment. As part of an immunity agreement, Felts agreed to testify against Welton at his trial.

In October 2026, Juan Welton faced a jury in Roanoke City Circuit Court. Felts took the stand and testified that she had been working as a prostitute and had arranged to meet Perez Naranjo, a client, at the motel that night. She said Welton was angered by the meeting and accompanied her. According to Felts, Welton approached Perez Naranjo in the parking lot, said a single word—"Yo"—grabbed his shirt, and shot him. The two then fled. On the witness stand, Felts said, “Rafael didn’t deserve to die... He should never have been taken from his family.”

After a two-day trial, the jury found Juan Quontell Welton guilty of second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of murder. Following his conviction in October 2026, Welton was scheduled to be sentenced on January 12, 2027.